


Newly Recruited

by SoulofHorus



Series: Apex Stories [8]
Category: Apex Legends (Video Games)
Genre: Angst, Dark Sparks, Established Relationship, Eventual Fluff, Eventual Relationships, Eventual Romance, F/F, F/M, I Will Go Down With This Ship, Kind of an OTP/OT3, Single mention of rape in chapter 12
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-11
Updated: 2021-02-05
Packaged: 2021-03-06 04:01:16
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 49,950
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25836913
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SoulofHorus/pseuds/SoulofHorus
Summary: Moving away to the Outlands comes with a cost. Leaving behind your family, your life as you knew it, and your past. Ezra thought he wouldn't be able to function properly so he sent himself to the Apex Games. What he didn't expect was for two Legends to catch his eye. The problem is: They're already in a relationship.
Relationships: Wattson | Natalie Paquette/Original Character(s), Wattson | Natalie Paquette/Wraith | Renee Blasey, Wattson | Natalie Paquette/Wraith | Renee Blasey/Original Character(s), Wraith | Renee Blasey/Original Character(s)
Series: Apex Stories [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1330364
Comments: 16
Kudos: 27





	1. Prologue

The announcer’s voice came over the PA system, _“You are the Apex Champion,”_ well, about time Ezra Steele got some recognition for all of his hard work. He climbed off his opponent whose face is going to need some help. He may or may not have punched the person to ‘death’ in World’s Edge to become Champion. It was in the off-season and the heads of the bloodsport allowed a bunch of new people to try out to see who would become the next Apex Legend. They wanted to see who had the guts to get down and dirty.

Ezra most certainly got his hands dirty, well, bloody in this case. To be fair, that person tried to be sneaky and they ran out of ammo. Ezra thought it would only be fair to have a fistfight. Sometimes the Legends would do this too, so why couldn’t he? As for the guts, he didn’t mind, he’s seen worse.

Ezra was one of those people that could certainly put on a show when they wanted. The physical damage to their bodies would be fixed and healed when they got back to the compound, but it was quite the trip. It makes you feel like you just had the most extreme acid trip that drugs could offer. His short curly black hair, along with his heterochromia eyes, one blue and one a light shade of violet, make him stand out just a little bit more. His sunglasses, or his nano-computer lenses, are what allow him to track targets during his Ultimate, but they are mostly used for their intended purpose. He wears a bandanna around his mouth because he respects his older sister. Eliza would always wear some sort of bandanna or balaclava everywhere, no matter the occasion. He prefers a balaclava over a bandanna, it just adds to his character.

The would-be Legend, if the organizers would accept him, would take the time to hone his skills after every match, even if he won or lost. His abilities are what define him as a Marksman, some would because of what they do, but hey, when he created his own technology to do this, that’s on you. His abilities are quite unique, well not as unique as the brooding Skirmisher, Wraith. She was quite the force to be reckoned with, at least that’s what the stories say about her.

His Ultimate is called Homing Beacon. This is an aimbot, but it is only active for ten seconds. Any target in a fifty-meter vicinity is in what Ezra calls ‘danger-zone’. The catch was that he can only fire so many bullets of each weapon type. It does somewhat compensate for recoil, and it allows the bullets to ‘magnetize’ to a target. The ability would scan the weapon he is currently holding and the Ultimate would only apply to _that_ weapon and no others. It would determine the damage of each bullet at each ten-meter interval, with each level of armor provided, helmets included, and then from there it would allow x amount of bullets to be considered ‘Aimbot Bullets’. If the gun is a P2020, Ezra would most likely fire fifteen bullets before the Ultimate would end, that is including Hammerpoints. It sounds complicated when he tries to explain it to others, but once seen in action, it becomes self-explanatory. Another part of a fairness protocol, there is no way for him to extend the time either. Ezra developed this technology a few years back while he was still in the Core Planets. Ezra still tests it, having tested it out in the firing range, there doesn’t seem to be any overlying problems, as of yet. No one in the Games has seen this yet, while the other competitors have all exposed their ultimates.

His tactical ability is called Fast Hands. This allows the adrenaline flowing in his veins to temporarily be set aside from his body. It acts as a filter to his body. It then stores it in a syringe that he can inject into someone else on his team or himself if he needed to think on a hair-trigger. With this ability active, he can reload and handle his weapons faster and they get a minuscule handling boost, it helps to compensate for recoil at longer ranges. That one bullet is the difference between a knockdown and survival.

His passive is called Gun Runner. This allows Ezra to hold two pistol-like guns, which are limited to P2020, RE-45, the Wingman, and even the Mozambique, the drawback is slightly increased reload time. That last one is more difficult to use dual-wield, so he doesn’t use it often. However, using two of the same weapons uses two ammo per shot. He cannot use two different guns, it is either two P2020s, two REs, or two Wingman. These abilities work well together, yet throughout his exhibition matches of Apex, he did not use his tactical or his ultimate. His passive, on the other hand, he used almost exclusively throughout, except for his fists at the end, cause well, that person got on his nerves before the match started so… _karma_. 

While he does carry a switchblade on his person, his melee ‘heirloom’ are actually brass knuckles. They aren’t traditional brass knuckles, however. They do slide on like normal ones, but once they do, they extend and actually cover his knuckles giving them protection so he can punch without having to worry about breaking anything. They also stay out of the way when it comes to gripping them when handling weapons.

His finisher is simple. He knocks their knockdown shield away, then gives their head a tap, then knees them in the chin. The knee he uses has an armor plate to help with that final blow. ‘Shattered Mind’ he calls it, or maybe ‘Jawbreaker’. Ezra thought about changing the name, but that would require thought, so he leaves it be, and if someone comes up with something better, then he’ll adopt the name. This was how Ezra got his namesake, Leadflare, or LF. He has other various names, like Flare, but he likes LF the best.

After pulling the body off the ground, he did the nice thing and brought them to the ship to be cared for. The person was ‘dead’ but in reality, he knocked them out cold. After all, winning three matches out of six is tiring. Ezra’s muscles were tired, and he wanted to nap before the results were announced. With his last performance and the two before it, racking up forty-nine total kills, he better get chosen to join the Legends. Ezra came to the Outlands because he wanted to get away from the Core Planets, away from the ones who wronged him. It also meant leaving behind his only family.

* * *

The Legends had the option to watch the off-season matches, that way, they can discuss strategy and pick favorites. The thirteen Legends all saw Leadflare’s performance and with him along, it would bring more potential advertisers. The organizers would be stupid not to pick him, especially after his remarkable performances.

“Did you see the way he moved?!” Octavio said, bouncing up and down in his chair as he watched all six of LF’s games over and over, watching him move around the battlefield with style. The adrenaline junkie, Octavio Silva, loved watching these games, it made him even put his adrenaline syringe down for all of about five seconds before he started twirling the empty syringe. 

Makoa Gibraltar, the gentle giant, and Bloodhound, the Frontier’s renowned Hunter, watched on in silence until Bloodhound said, “A round fit for the _slatra,_ wouldn’t you agree?”

Gibraltar let out a boisterous laugh and replied with, “I agree with you brotha. Kid’s got some moves!”

“I agree with you as well, friend,” the MRVN unit, callsign Pathfinder said right after from across the room. “He’s really good,” the screen on Path’s chest lit up with a smile. 

“Just another insect if you ask me,” The Mad Scientist, Alexander Nox, or Caustic, said as he left the common room. Park Tae Joon, alias Crypto, also said nothing as he was working on his Drone, fixing his EMP charger. It was having a misfire error.

Anita Williams, Bangalore, watched the feeds and made comments and critiques about it, “His form is above average. His gun skill is excellent and he can definitely hold his own in high-pressure situations. The organizers would lose their minds if they didn’t take him.”

Mirage, the Holographic Trickster, or Elliott Witt as he is known among the Legends walked into the room, “So this new guy came in and did an ex-ext-extra.... a fabulous display and you’re saying that they won’t take him?” his words were mostly muffled because he was eating some cookies he baked, Momma Witt’s recipe.

“Elliott, chew with ya mouth closed, ya hear?” Ajay Che, Lifeline, scolded him without even looking at him. The medic was spread across an armchair as she rubbed her temples. She may or may not have gotten a little hungover last night, celebrating the off-season. Not many chances for her to actually unwind, but she ends up regretting it the next day, not even D.O.C can help her.

The other two legends in the room, Revenant and Loba Andrade, were watching with veiled interest. The two of them came to a... mutual understanding after the artifact hunt. While most don’t particularly care for what happens to them, they obviously had time to sort things out. “That one seems like he could steal someone’s heart,” the translocating thief purred aloud, not caring who heard her.

“Just another skinsuit to me,” Revenant grunted and left the room to go brood or whatever a simulacrum does in their spare time. No one said goodbye to him, but the slight tension in everyone’s shoulders, sans Pathfinder’s, eased.

A voice came from the next room, “ _Mes amis,_ have they decided who was going to be the fourteenth Legend?” The voice revealed a tall blonde with scarring on the left side of her face and a prosthetic metal arm in view. Her hair was in all sorts of directions as she pulled her turtleneck shirt down, covering her semi-toned abdomen. Thankfully, she was also wearing pants.

“Nat, you know they won’t pick until tomorrow,” another voice came from behind the blonde. She was shorter than Nat, or Natalie Paquette, Wattson. Her hair was also in multiple directions, but the smile that graced the raven-haired woman showed her happiness. The woman snaked an arm around Natalie’s waist. Renee Blasey, Wraith, explained to her girlfriend and lover that they always pick a new Legend before the start of the in-season games.

Natalie and Renee have been an item since Nat’s appearance. It was an awkward six to eight months before they admitted their mutual love for each other. The other Legends got a kick out of their shyness and at first wanted them to keep their PDA away from them, but now they don’t care because anyone with eyes can see how happy they are together. Revenant being Revenant was the party pooper, but again, no one really likes him. Except Pathfinder for some odd reason. As for the polar opposites, the Apex following ships them, yet they deny it, just to watch everyone get upset. Quite hilarious, actually.

 _“Doudou,_ you know I get curious. I want to make a good first impression,” she whispered to Renee before kissing the woman’s temple. The older woman blushed in response.

Elliott had to chime in his two cents, “Like you did to each other? We all remember how awkward you two were.” The other Legends present let out small chuckles of confirmation. Their comments overlapped with each other but everyone was a friend to the two of them with an exception or two. They were supportive when they came out to each other, even Loba. A surprise to be sure.

“And look at us now,” Renee retorted softly, relishing in the warmth that is Natalie.

“Yeah, you look like you just fu….fuuu…. screwed each others’ brains out,” Elliott said bluntly as he eyed the two of them. 

“I’m wearing a turtleneck for reason, _Monsieur_ ,” Natalie replied. Elliott took a moment to observe the two ladies; the sly smiles and rosy cheeks, and flushed skin from the two ladies made Elliott regret his previous statement, “Oh my, get a room you two!”

“We did,” the ladies said in unison, looking at each other, which prompted them to fall into pits of laughter. Natalie spoke up, “So, how many kills did this ‘LF’ acquire?”

Renee looked at the results over the course of the six-game off-season; she let out a whistle, “forty-nine kills across three games where he was the victor. Thirty-three when he was not. That’s…”

Natalie took over in awe, “Eighty-two kills in just six games. Oh, _ma chérie_ , they better pick him. The next closest comes in at fifty-two kills.”

“I have to say, I am with you on that, if they don’t pick him, then it will be a mundane season. They need to spice it up, and he will do nicely.” Renee mused, her thoughts were on other ideas. Considering the multiple loops they had to jump through with the artifact hunt, a lot of things can be considered ‘mundane’. Natalie saw Renee’s thinking face and wondered if she was thinking the same thing. _Who is he?_

* * *

After the dropship returned to the compound, the other competitors congratulated Ezra on his performance. He knew they were genuine too because of how they presented themselves. While he was humble most of the time, this did stroke his ego, and he even offered a tip to each one seeing where they went wrong. It may sound smug, but it is anything but, these people have potential and they could make it to the games one day. For most, this was a one and done experience.

Thankfully, Ezra had years of practice. Years of learning how to fight and how to defend himself. Lord knows how many times he’s defended his older sister, Eliza, from lethal danger. Ezra shivered lightly at the thought, not wanting to relive those painful memories. When he finished up with the other competitors, he retreated to his room for the time being; waiting for all the candidates to be called forward, and then he got a private message.

He saw who it was from and he immediately wanted to smash his communicator into a billion pieces. He knew what he was getting into and he knew what the repercussions would be and he paid the price for it. What happened to him broke him, and he hasn’t been the same since. He didn’t know if it was possible for him to even go through the whole process again.

Frustrated, Ezra decided to visit the indoor shooting range/simulation room and loaded two Wingman pistols and grabbed some Arc Stars. He wanted a challenge. He wanted targets to try and shoot back. Maybe it was because he wanted to feel pain. 

The buzzer broke Ezra out of his thoughts and he began his assault on the target dummies, while his muscles were still sore, he wanted to feel _something_. One of the settings made the dummies fire back, to give it a sense of realism. Ezra dodged, jumped, and rolled all while firing his guns. The reloading is the fun part, as he flings out the old magazine and lightly tosses two magazines in the air before making the guns catch them. Once Ezra pulled the trigger, they locked in place and the next round was primed. A flashy display, but it works.

All targets were down and he only fired three shots more after he reloaded. Except he let one of the dummies shoot him to give him that adrenaline he craves. It is what keeps him going. His breathing was slightly audible, and his muscles started to fatigue. _Well, that’s what happens when you squeeze into the Games at the last minute, Ezra._ A slow clap brought him out of his adrenaline high. He turned and aimed his Wingmen at the source of the noise, a silhouette. Since his ammo was considered ‘live’, he immediately lowered the weapons and calmly walked over to the gun bench and set them down, along with all the excess ammo and grenades he picked up. “Can I help you?” his tone neutral, with a hint of curiosity of why someone decided to make their presence known. Everyone else was in their room, but Ezra stood out, and he didn’t care. Normally, no one ever comes down here, at least they never came down while he was in here.

“Yes, you can actually,” the voice said plainly. _Feminine, that narrows it down to five. It isn’t Lifeline, no accent. It isn’t Bangalore, the voice doesn't carry that sense of formality. It isn’t Wattson, she would have a French accent. Loba is out of the question, she would steal something to see if I noticed. It can’t be…_ “I wanted to talk to you about-“

“Do me a favor and don’t beat around the bush with me, that won’t work. Tell me what you want and we can be on our way,” Ezra said gruffly as he watched the room disappear and it transformed into a blank room with grid-like patterns on the walls. Ezra enjoyed the room because he could be left alone and out of everyone’s sight. _So much for privacy though._

“Well, when you put it like that… I hope the organizers pick you, they would be idiots if they didn’t,” the voice said with conviction. Ezra took a moment to actually look at the person and when he did, his eyes widened under the sunglasses and took multiple steps back, drawing his personal switchblade. _Shit, why her?_ Of course, the one Legend who comes to visit happens to be one who makes men cry at her name. She is ruthless in the arena, one who can strike true fear into the hearts of many. Those blue eyes hold a great deal of malicious intent.

His facial coverings hid his true expression, but his body did not, obviously. The Legend couldn’t see how his jaw was clenched, and they couldn’t see his oddly colored eyes narrowed into slits. His body language did that for him. “Relax, I don’t kill outside the arena,” a flash of light made Ezra blink, “but I make exceptions when I’m threatened.” The eyes of the Legend turned milky white. The blade radiated an otherworldly vibe, one that looks like it can scar if it even touches your skin. It was held in the Legend’s hands, doing multiple spins and twirls on their fingers. _Trying to show off?_

Ezra made his switchblade sheath, but he never let go of it. “So then why _are_ you here?” Curiosity will be the reason Ezra dies someday, but what can he say, he _likes_ the danger that comes with it. It provides him with an adrenaline rush.

“To get my welcome in before everyone else does. So welcome to the Apex Games. You already know who I am, don’t you?” the Legend said, their lips curved into a smirk, finally revealing themselves.

“I do. Your name has been mere whispers among the FNG grapevine. Your kill efficiency has been unmatched. You have nicknames. However, I fail to see how any of them apply,” Ezra said to gain a reaction from the Legend.

The twirling stopped, and the blade was poised in defense, “Oh? Are you asking for a demonstration?” There was something else to that statement that allowed more adrenaline to rush throughout his body or was he imagining it?

Ezra raised his hands in surrender, a smug smile and a rapid heartbeat under the mask, _ahh the rush_ , “That's what they were saying, not me. I can see where you get the name,” Ezra defended himself. “I will mention that your _actual_ name has been flung around since it was found out, so get rid of the look and stance. Anyway, you’re the one who the community calls the ‘Interdimensional Skirmisher’ are you not?” Ezra said cautiously, making sure he can get names to faces.

The Legend nodded, “Correct, and you’re Ezra Steele, otherwise known as Leadflare, but you prefer ‘LF’, don’t you?” Ezra nodded, and his eyes narrowed even more. _How much does she know?_

The Legend known as Wraith stepped forward, a smug smile now on her face, one that held future promises. In a flash, her Kunai was to his throat, but Ezra didn’t react. If anything, he raised an eyebrow. He stood there, and then _laughed_ , “Did you really think I would be _that_ stupid?” he asked as the voices in Wraith’s head warned her of danger, her eyebrows furrowed in slight confusion before looking down. 

“Impressive,” a satisfied smirk came to her features as she removed her Kunai from his throat and he his switchblade from above her heart. “To answer you, no, I don’t think you are,” Wraith said turning around and leaving Ezra to his own devices.

“This day turned out to be more interesting than I thought it would be,” he mused aloud, not particularly caring if Wraith heard him. He rolled his shoulders before sighing and made to leave the room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was a draft that was in my docs for like six months. I went through it and edited some things in and fixed some stuff. This takes place in the off-season of Season 5 to Season 6. So like, right about now, give or take a week.
> 
> Plans are being made and plot points being established, but for now, enjoy the Prologue.


	2. Meet the Legends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As it states, it does exactly that.
> 
> **Also chapter warning to Self-Harm. Vague imagery to it.**

As soon as he left the simulation range, he clutched his chest as he inhaled some much-needed air. She was hot  _ but dangerous _ . Those electric blue eyes boring into his soul made him feel things. Things that he hasn’t felt since…  _ them _ and it’s been a few years since then. The way her lips looked when she smirked, he refrained from trying to kiss her, she probably would have killed him for real if he attempted it. Even though she can incite fear into the hearts of many, he wanted to try it anyway.

He took off his cowl and ran his fingers along the tiny scars that littered his jaw. his past was going to catch up to him sooner or later. Yet, that’s what he gets for falling for them. Ezra’s exterior renders him as a statue, with a rough, jagged edge; but on the inside, his heart can have enough love for two people.

Even so, he knows Wraith is spoken for. She has Natalie, a beautiful blue-eyed blonde. That brain of hers was one to be both envious and thankful for. Ezra would gladly sit down and listen to her talk about her projects just to see her eyes light up with glee. Renee, Wraith’s actual name, was also a great choice because even though she went through hell, she has a pillar to lean on. Ezra admires one who knows that it’s okay to not be okay. It makes Ezra feel jealous because he knows he could love both of them equally, but they may not share the same views as he does. “I really need to focus, not worry about…  _ that. _ I need to forget them and focus on why I’m really here. I didn’t come for that, but would it be so bad to indulge in it?” He asked himself softly as he headed for the doors leading back to the barracks.

Little did Ezra know Renee was right around the corner with Natalie. Both of them were spying on him. Both the Legends and the off-season combatants were in the Apex Compound on Talos, by order of the advisors. Both women heard his mumbling about his lack of focus. Neither one of them saw his face, as it wasn’t widely known, and well, the women are curious. Sue them.

Ezra finally walked out of the room, leaving to go do his cooling down exercises, which required meditation. He needed time to think. As he left the room, he inconspicuously left something behind. As soon as the door shut, both females entered the room, making sure that SG left the room. “What do you think he was talking about,  _ Doudou? _ ” Natalie asked.

“I don’t know babe, but he seemed to lose his composure after I left and if it means what I think it means…”

“You think there is a chance?” a small smile formed on the Static Defender’s face.

“Possibly, not confirmed. We’ll have to wait and see,” Renee replied as she bent down to pick up the note. Renee laughed as she showed it to Natalie.

_ Nice try. _

“ _ Attendez,  _ he knew we were here?” Nat exclaimed, her mouth agape and her silver-blue eyes wide as saucers. Renee kissed her cheek as she nodded. “But.. but how?”

“More observant than I gave him credit for,” Renee said as the voices in her head went off,  _ Far door, another note. _

Renee went to the door and grabbed the note that slipped under the slit. Upon opening it Renee let out another laugh as she shook her head. 

_ Glad to know I was right. See you around, Wraith and Wattson. Hopefully, we won’t have to kill each other.  _

* * *

To start off the day, Ezra got a nightmare, and he could barely remember it, but it was enough to keep him awake for the next four hours in a cold sweat. He then sat on his bed and meditated to get the adrenaline out of his system. He only uses the other method in the Games. So he has to let this adrenaline high run its course. He knows the cause of his nightmares, but he cannot get them to cease screwing with him.  _ Probably deserved. _

Today was the day that one of the would-be Legends gets picked to join the other Legends for the next Season of the Apex Games. Ezra got himself ready in record time post-meditation and was sitting calmly with the other fifteen or so candidates. His hands are spread across the chair he is sitting in, one leg crossed over the other giving off the impression of boredom. His glasses are back on and so is his balaclava. His hair was chilling in its natural form, but he was thinking about getting a haircut. Normally he doesn’t do anything for it besides the obvious washing and care to make sure he doesn’t smell like the innards of a Leviathan.

All the Legends already signed on are here and seated in an area opposite of the candidates. Ezra could name them all based on their silhouettes and even their footsteps, no matter how silent they think they are. The Legends were all eyeing the candidates and all their gazes seemed to have stopped on Leadflare, no surprise. They all want him to be the next Legend, so if he doesn’t get picked, then they are going to outrage. They have a reason to want him on the roster. More for their own selfish reasons, but two of them want something more. Ezra doesn’t know that, and it will most likely stay that way unless they let him know. Or if he figured it out.

Ezra stopped rolling his ankle as he felt the stares of every Legend, even the simulacrum’s. His gaze searched them all and when it landed on Pathfinder, his middle screen flashed a wave and Ezra let out a small chuckle, waving back, making the other candidates look at him with amused expressions. Some of the Legends took a moment to stretch and some took off, some of those being Wraith and Wattson. So, it looks like he was right, they  _ are _ together. Probably needed a quickie, and Ezra wouldn’t blame them either, they looked at each other like they needed each other to breathe. Ezra smiled under his bandanna but quickly faded as the thoughts of his past interests came crashing down.  _ Yep, still a sore spot. _

So, Ezra went to the next best thing that he had, the switchblade on his belt. He pulled it out and inspected it, noticing the slight red tinge to it. His left arm burned as a reminder. He subtly out the blade to his left arm, around the upper forearm area. Heh,  _ maybe it’ll match the rest. _ Before he could even slide the knife, it was taken out of his hands.  _ Fast Hands who now? _ “You shouldn’t do that,  _ Monsieur, _ ” the sound of that voice and the accent sent a shiver down Ezra’s spine.  _ This one is Wattson. _

Recovering, “Respectfully, Ms. Wattson, I can do what I want with myself, whether or not someone witnesses it though...,” Ezra trailed off, not turning around, but his hand was palm up, waiting for the knife. What he was about to do was a bad habit, something he should break, but it’s all he can do to actually feel pain; outside of getting shot that is. He may even have become desensitized to it. _Not my fault._

“Bro, are you crazy, you’re talking to one of the Legends! Do you want to die?!” someone from Ezra’s left asked.

Ezra turned to them, deadpanning with a monotone voice, “Every single day, but why would you care? You shouldn’t, so back off.” An object was placed in his hand, but it wasn’t his knife. In fact, it kind of burned. Without turning around, “Ah, so you’re here too?  _ Joy _ ,” he said sarcastically. “Pleasure to be in your presence again, Ms. Wraith,” he said genuinely.

Ezra can be a gentleman when he wants to be and he also respects the Legend’s identities, even though they are known to everyone, he keeps it informal non-personal. Knowing none of them are married, so Mr. and Ms. to each Legend, except for Bloodhound, they are just  _ Bloth Hoondr _ , in their native tongue. That and, Bloodhound is kinda creepy-looking when they stare at him with that mask and the trinkets dinging against it. Add in a head tilt and it’s all over.

“Can I  _ actually _ have my knife back? I’m getting bored with this conversation, kinda want this to be over so it decides whether I stay or go…” Ezra trailed off as his knife was placed in his hand again, “Thank you, now don’t you have to sit up there with your fellow Legends?”

As a teasing remark, Renee left with, “Aren’t you going to join us?”

“Maybe I will, maybe I won’t. Gotta make sure I’m feeling it,” he replied easily. Ezra smirked under his covering and put away the knife and resumed his position he had before. The other participants looked at Ezra in fear and a newfound sense of wonder. No one talks to the Legends so  _ casually _ , everyone usually shits their pants when they even see them. Ezra really doesn’t care, and he was never going to. This was only to get away from it all, maybe only temporary before he heads back home. His sister likes being able to visit him from time to time, but it might be just a bit longer before he can again.

Ezra decided to see the room without hindrance and took off his glasses and folded them and tucked them into his collar. His blue and light violet eye looked around the room, some were surprised, others kept a blank face. He then interlocked his fingers behind his head and leaned back. He stopped when he heard his spine stretch and pressure was alleviated off his back. It’s one of those  _ ahh _ moments.

Soon enough, the lights went out and a single spotlight came on over the stage. It wasn’t a super fancy stage with the full curtains and spotlights. It wasn’t authentic, but it was in decent condition, given the circumstances. In that spotlight was a silhouette of a person with a voice modulator. The voice had no specific accents, and for all Ezra knows, it was not even a real person. “Welcome to the Apex Compound! I hope the accommodations have been satisfying.” Several grumbles of ‘yes’ and ‘whatever’ came from the other competitors. Ezra remained silent. Yet, he could feel the mystery person’s gaze on him; in response, Ezra raised an eyebrow. He shifted so that his elbows rested on his knees as he hunched forward, but yet, still said nothing. He couldn’t contain the grin he had on his face, even if his eyes showed it, the lower half of his face didn’t show how much he was enjoying the situation. All he let out was a simple  _ hmm _ . It almost looked like he was challenging them.

“Well, now we have come to a conclusion as to who we are accepting to be the official fourteenth Legend. This time, we’ve allowed the Legends to take their pick as to who they want. They were adamant about it, and we figured why not? It will add some ‘spice’ to the Games this season.” Ezra could feel the words were directed at him. Sorry that the people he was fighting didn’t know the difference between a gun and their privates. Unlike them, Ezra knows how to handle himself. 

“The votes have already been registered and the results are in, that was… quite fast,” the voice said in confusion. In response, Ezra closed his eyes and let his thoughts drift.  _ What would this entail? What do I have to gain from this? What is my purpose here?  _ For reasons unknown, wandering the Galaxy was something Ezra enjoys. Who knows, maybe he hasn’t found a solid reason to stick around.

He must have missed the announcement because the person sitting next to him smacked his shoulder brought him out of his stupor, “Dude, you won, go on,” they said, beaming at him. Ezra shook his head quickly and stood up to go meet the Legends… at least twelve of them at least. He started where Crypto sat on the left and ended with Revenant on the right. He gave a firm handshake to each one. Firm to him means tight to everyone else. Even Bangalore was surprised at his strength. The only ones who didn’t care were Caustic, Revenant, and Pathfinder. Pathfinder got a high five over a handshake, which made Ezra’s mouth curve slightly upwards. Gibraltar gave him a hug which he returned. It looked like the rumors were true, the man was a hugger.

The applause was brief and then everyone else was whisked away, and they were given spectator’s passes for the season, as a way to say ‘Thank you’. The Legends departed, but Lifeline came up to him, “Come on now, we need to make sure ya get settled in before the season starts in a week.”

“Lead the way, Ms. Lifeline,” Ezra replied, being courteous, gesturing to her.

“It’s Ajay Che outside the arena, Ezra,” he tensed. “Yes, we do know ya name, othawise you wouldn’t be here.” Ezra breathed a sigh of relief. “Ya also caught the interest of Dark Sparks.”

“Dark... Sparks?” Ezra asked confused, eyebrows furrowing.

“Ever since Renee and Natalie made demselves a couple, the people have been ‘shipping’ them and been called dem ‘Dark Sparks’,” Ajay said with a kind smile. 

“I see, how long have they been together’?” Ezra asked, uneasy as they enter the main Compound where he would ‘live’ for the season. Unfamiliar territory was always unnerving to him. He needs to know where he is and where his exits are at all times, kind of a habit given his background.

“You jealous?” Ajay smirked as she dragged him around multiple corners, further into the compound.

“No, just curious, and could you slow down? I have legs and I would like to keep my arm intact. I need my arms, you know? To shoot people who get too close,” Ezra said teasingly, yet serious at the same time.

Ajay only chuckled, “You’ll fit right in with Elliott, always cracking horrible puns.”

At that moment, a voice said, “Hey! I’m not that terrible!” Even then, Ezra had to laugh and it felt like a small weight lifted off his chest. 

“Never answered my question, Ajay,” Ezra reminded her. 

“About eight months comin’ up. You neva answered mah question.” 

Ezra hummed, before he mumbled, “Maybe a little.”

Ajay smirked, “Oh you gots it bad…”

* * *

Ezra was shown his room and his items from his previous location already arrived. They were in boxes and he shut the door and began to work. He grabbed his first aid kit out first and put it in the center of the dresser. The room itself was mostly bare, but it was large enough for at least two people. The bed was at least a full size, possibly a queen size, and thankfully his sheets were universal, stretching to fit any size mattress. Ezra took off his bandanna and set it next to his glasses. He stared into the mirror before looking at his scars, some of them self-inflicted. He needed to do it. Not that he doesn’t regret it.

Eliza does know he cuts and has tried to help him, but he doesn’t find himself fit for help, but maybe there would be something there. He ran a hand through his hair and decided it was a little too long since he last cut it. He would have to remedy that soon. He would also have to move the boxes of his stuff, which wasn’t much, later. A knock on his door brought him out of his thinking state and retied his bandanna around his mouth. He really didn’t care about covering his eyes at the moment since all the Legends have already seen them. He opened the door a crack, his knife in hand, hidden behind the door. “You know I’m not here to kill you,” said the oh so familiar voice of Wraith.

“Could have fooled me, Ms. Wraith. I-”

“First off, since you are now apart of the Legends, you have to call us by our actual names outside the arena. Sometimes, we like to go into the city and go low profile,” she scoffed, “Unless you’re Octavio, but that’s beside the point. We don’t need you outing us in public,” she cut Ezra off. He raised an eyebrow.

“Then, what am I to call you? If you don’t want me to call you by your alias, then you gotta tell me what you prefer,” his eyes locked on hers, waiting to see who would look away first.

After a few tense moments of both of them staring, she eventually looked away and said, “You can call me Renee,” she backed up down the hallway. “The rest of the Legends would like to get to know you on a first-name basis.”  _ So the elusive Skirmisher reveals her name.  _ Ezra did not want to call them by their actual names until they introduced themselves. So, hearing it from the horse’s mouth was reassuring. Ezra went back into his room, shut the door and took out his knife and held it up, so he could look at his reflection on the blade, his oddly colored eyes looking back at his reflection, the red tinge still there. He sighed before holstering it and actually left his sunglasses behind. Normally, it is frowned upon to wear them indoors.

Once he took out some clothes and laid them out to put away later, he left his room, and he dreaded actually sitting with the Legends. Much to his surprise, he was more nervous about being in the same room as Renee and Natalie.  _ This will be fun. _

He started to maneuver his way through the compound, hoping to not get lost, which was an easy feat, believe it or not. There were  _ way _ too many corridors. Thankfully, said corridors were marked and it made it even easier as he heard voices. Multiple overlapping voices. It seems they were having a party.  _ It better not be for me. I don’t need a party.  _ Ezra kept passing by photos and candids in the Arena. Some of them were of Octane using his selfie-stick, to take pictures of multiple explosions in the background and Bangalore in the foreground. Ezra hummed, then inhaled a sharp breath at the last one from his last match, and he had to admit, it was a good candid.

It was him, taking aim at a target with his squadmates watching over him. Whoever took that picture, Ezra wants to give them props, but it was probably a camera hidden nearby. Ezra distinctly remembers getting three or four kills, in multiple matches, in that one spot.

Once he rounded the final corner, taking his eyes off the pictures, to see all the Legends lounging about. The one they call Pathfinder noticed Ezra first, “Hello, friend! So glad you could join us!” Their display showed an excited face. Ezra subconsciously smiled, his eyes crinkled, meaning it was genuine.  _ Does he ever get sad? _

“Ayy, it’s the man of the hour, brothas,” Gibraltar said gesturing to him.

“Welcome to the Apex Games, the Allfather blesses you,” Bloodhound said with a nod. Ezra looked into the mask and saw the genuine welcome, so he relaxed his stance, and most everyone noticed, but said nothing. However, could they blame him?

“Thank you,  _ Bloth Hoondr _ . It’s great to be here,” Ezra replied gratefully. Bloodhound gave a satisfied hum before joining their fellow legends. 

“Wait, wait, wait. You are all greeting the newest Legend without extrav- extra… a fabulous display of confetti? This isn’t the proper welcoming at all!” Mirage said as he entered the room. He quickly introduced himself to Ezra, “How ya doing champ, the name’s Mirage, but outside of the games, call me Elliott.”

Ezra kept his gaze neutral before chuckling, which surprised everyone in the room, even Crypto in the back. All the Legends thought he was incapable of laughter, “I can see us getting along quite well, Eli,” Ezra purposefully nicknamed him just to get a reaction.

“Hey!” Elliott pouted.

“I thought we were on the same page,” he said before looking to Lifeline, “Ajay, nice to see you.”

“Thanks, you too, Ezra,” she smiled before grabbing her drone and standing up, she had to make sure her D.O.C drone was ready for the games in a week.

A flash of green whipped across Ezra’s vision before he was hearing another language. He realized that it was Octane. “Hey  _ amigo, _ the name’s Octavio. You gotta teach me how to do those slick moves!” he said. Ezra’s eyes widened before taking a step back and taking a deep breath. Octavio didn’t notice, before adding, “Your eyes look really awesome!”

That was when they  _ truly _ noticed his eyes for the first time. Ajay was able to say what it was, “Heterochromia?”

Ezra nodded towards the medic as Ezra’s insecurities from the past came up. There were times where he was made fun of for having two different colored eyes. Eliza had actually helped him overcome those insults. Her teachings echoed in the back of his mind, and what she described to help him. Thank God for the older sibling.

“Usually harder to notice, one eye has a violet tint to it, and it only shows in certain lights, or if I mention it,” Ezra’s fingers traced around his switchblade, waiting to see who would jump first. No one did.

Everyone nodded and Ezra took a very audible sigh of relief. “Good, because I wouldn’t tolerate any insults. They would have a new scar if they did,” he said with such calmness that everyone knew he was serious.

Renee and Natalie were across the room, gazing into his eyes, and they finally noticed the violet tint that was in his left eye. Ezra could feel their burning stares into him, but he chose not to look at them, not because he didn’t want to, but if he did, then all of his pain would come back. Reminding him of what he had. He doesn’t need to see that.

Crypto said nothing and then got up and left the room. “You know, I honestly didn’t expect much out of him to begin with.”

“He’s always been like that, you should have seen him when Elliott tapped him on the shoulder,” Gibraltar commented then laughed as he seemed to recall the memory.

“At least we know this one is a straight shooter,” Bangalore said as she entered the room. She looked to Ezra, “Name’s Anita. Don’t worry about Crypto, he’s always been the grouchy kind.”

“Ahh, so he’s finally arrived,” a gravelly voice said making Ezra look over his shoulder.

“Dr. Caustic, your reputation proceeds you,” Ezra said before he went by the older man with a pat on the forearm. “If you all need me, I’m going to finish unpacking. I feel as if there is something I’m missing and something the whole lot of you aren’t telling me.”

“Leaving so soon, sweetie?” A sickly sweet voice said from the opposite side of the room. Loba was relaxing in a chair, twirling her cane around whilst having a drink.

“I dunno, did you steal something of mine?” Ezra replied with a raised eyebrow, seeing if she could catch on.

“Already tried. Nice touch on the defense though,” she said, making every Legend present do a double-take.

Ezra couldn’t help but smile gleefully, yet his face covering hid the sinister look, “Learned how shocking it could be?”

“Hmmph.”

Turning back around, Ezra stared right into bright orange eyes and a figure with crackling skin. “Was wondering when you were going to show.”

The shadow form of Revenant looked momentarily surprised that the skinsuit didn’t react. As soon as it was there, it was gone.  _ “Don’t make me kill you, skinbag.” _

“You’d be doing me a favor, then,” Ezra replied without hesitation.

No one else made a comment as he left the room with that statement. Renee and Natalie watched as he left without so much as a glance. Neither one showed it outright, but he interests them, for many reasons. He also concerns them, just by his actions and the way he talks. Revenant then grunted before appearing as normal then stalked over to Loba. Conversation began again like the past three minutes never happened.

While the two of them love one another, they feel as if something was missing. They’ve tried other options, but nothing ever fit. With a glance at each other, they seemed to have come to an understanding. They wordlessly followed Ezra back to his room, but not before they took a pitstop to Renee’s room to pick up something.

* * *

Ezra continued to unpack his belongings, and as he did, he saw a picture frame of him and Eliza. She also has heterochromia, but her violet eye is her right eye. She had to deal with all the drama from her peers as well, so she helped him get over all the bullies. She had punched one of them in the face that said something and they never bothered her again, Ezra didn’t know what she said, but they left her alone after that. She was full of confidence, something he had to learn.

A knock came to his door as he put the photo on the dresser, something to remind him that there was something in his life. He went to the door, making sure that his bandanna was secure, before looking to see  _ both _ Renee and Natalie. “Can I help you two? I’m still busy unpacking” his eyes softened when he saw the item in their hands. He opened the door all the way, and slowly took the gift, “This isn’t going to explode, is it?” He raised an eyebrow at the two females.

“No, it is not, silly.  _ On promet _ ,” Natalie said with a dazzling smile. One that reminds him of his past, a smile he’s seen far too often.

_ “D’accord. Je vais te faire confiance ... cette fois,” _ he replied in perfect French, which made both of the ladies’ eyes widen. Natalie clapped with glee, while Renee looked impressed. “I grew up learning French, I just lost the accent over the years, don’t act so surprised. But seriously, this blows up, my trust is the last thing you’ll earn,” his mouth flicked into a smirk as he watched their expressions change. Renee smirked back, but Natalie gasped at the insinuation.  _ Not so innocent now are you? _ “I kid, but I’m serious about it only if it blows up.”

“Just open it, it is something we got for every new Legend that joins us. Something every Legend has in the arena,” Renee responded. “That thing is literally impossible to blow up. It isn’t even designed for that.”

Ezra looked back to the gift in his hand, then back up to them, “My apologies, then. My trust is difficult to gain, and hard to maintain. I’ll warn you now.” He put the gift down on the dresser closest to him without leaving the doorway. 

Natalie grabbed his hand with both of hers before saying, “Welcome to the Apex Games, Ezra!”

“Thank you. Have a safe night you two, and I appreciate the effort,” he said with a smile that reached his eyes. However, when he closed the door, his tears fell.  _ What did I do to deserve this pain? They remind me so much of them, but I can’t bring myself to admit it. _ Ezra moved the rest of his stuff off his bed before just falling into it, hoping it takes him away to a place where he can relax. His eyes drifted to the gift right on his dresser. He doesn’t want to open it yet. However, as the saying goes about curiosity… he slowly removed the cover on the gift before pulling out a single card. It was the symbol of the Apex Games. On the back, there was a note from both Natalie and Renee.

_ We’re serious, welcome to the Games. See you out there. _

He sighed before putting it right next to the framed picture of his sister. Right before he went to sleep, he wrote a note to talk to Eliza to update her on his whereabouts.  _ It’s been a few months since I’ve talked to my dear sister. She is going to be sooo pissed when I call, _ Ezra thought before sleep consumed him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "On promet" = "We promise."
> 
> "D'accord. Je vais te faire confiance ... cette fois." = "Okay, I'll trust you... this time."


	3. Day in the Life

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chat with Mirage, Breakfast with the Legends, and a conversation with Eliza. (Ezra's older sister, in case you forgot)

As usual, sleep did not come naturally to Ezra. The nightmares consumed him and threw him to and fro. To add to this horrifying mix, he saw vague faces and it terrified him. _It was their fault._ Shooting up from his bed, withholding a scream, he calmly got dressed in casual clothes, walked outside the compound because the outer security was completely abysmal, and once he was far enough away, he screamed.

This time, he remembered the nightmare. It was one of the worst days of his life. There was just so much carnage. Why they were after them, it just… doesn’t- _didn’t_ \- make sense and perhaps it never will. Ezra was actually thankful he didn’t bring his switchblade with him, or else he might have done something he would regret. Taking a few deep breaths, and finally calming down. He trudged his way back to the compound. Sneaking back in was certainly easier than sneaking out. Why though was a conundrum. Once he made it back inside to the bland walls, he went and grabbed his showering materials and went to deal with his inner turmoil.

Upon entering the bathroom, he was thankful that no one else was there yet. Perfect. No one would be able to see his face, and if someone _does_ enter, then he brought a balaclava. Once he finishes showering and freshening up, he was going to call Eliza to at least let his older sister know that he was indeed alive and has not done something stupid… _yet._

Just to be safe, Ezra put on his face covering and left just as Elliott walked in, “Morning champ, how’d ya sleep?”

“Decent,” Ezra lied smoothly. No one would know about the horrid nightmares of those metal freaks… Sighing softly before looking back, “Is there a plan for breakfast, or are we on our own?”

“Normally, we’re on our own, but since you’re here, everyone’s going to put forth an extrava- extrav- _effort_ to impress you. Kind of a tradition we started when Nat got here. Then again, I think that was because Rae fell for her.” The mention of those two made his heart clench inwardly, but Ezra, true to his surname, kept himself solid.

“Was it that obvious for them?” Ezra asked, genuinely curious.

Elliott guffawed, “Oh yes it was. They were dancing around each other for months, and even during the Games too when they got put on the same squad. It was adorable as it was sickening.”

Ezra did actually watch those earlier Games, and while the camera did not stick with the pair, he did seem to notice that those two were certainly more… distant to one another. Still, he could probably…. No. They are in a committed relationship and he shouldn’t try to come between it. Purposely creating animosity between the Legends was certainly frowned upon but it also wasn’t avoidable in some cases. Something would happen and then things around the compound and dropship would be tense for a few weeks, and then a Game or so later, everything would somewhat return to normal. “Seems they worked it out, right?”

“Yeah, they did, anyway head to the kitchen area. Again since you’re new, someone is going to make you breakfast,” Elliott said before shutting the shower curtain. Ezra left the area and retreated back to his room where he got dressed in a loose leather jacket, dark navy jeans, and comfortable boots.

The walk through the compound was simple enough, just following the signs that say ‘Common Area’ and ‘Kitchen’. Considering how close they were together, it wasn’t a surprise to see six of the Legends all crowded around the kitchen island. “So, did I just walk in on a cult meeting, or is anyone invited?”

The faces of Octavio, Ajay, Anita, Path, Renee, and Natalie all looked over to see him leaning against the corridor. Ajay was the first to speak, “Going fo the bika look?” Gesturing to his outfit.

Anita interjected, “Just ask Makoa, he’s got a bike you could probably borrow.”

Ezra shrugged, “This was what I wore all the time in the Core.” Seeing how that statement could mean two different things, “Core planets,” he clarified.

“Hey, Ezra, come over here and look at this,” Octavio said, already hopped up on his adrenaline mix or what Ezra was thinking of calling it ‘Jungle Juice’. Ezra pushed himself off the corridor to look to see an absolute mess of pancake batter, flour, and probably an egg.

With a glance at each Legend, the two that were covered in it were rightfully embarrassed. “Did you try to use a mixer on high with liquid dough?” he asked with a knowing tone.

“ _Oui,”_ was the response that came from the younger of the two.

“Okay,” Ezra said, shaking off the leather jacket and tossing it over a chair across the room. “Move over, I got this.”

“This was supposed to be for you,” Renee mumbled off to the side, attempting to brush the batter off herself. For once in a great while, the voices were silent in her head. She was going to make a big deal out of it, but she shrugged it off, along with the batter.

“You don’t know how many times my sister has tried to make me something and have it _literally_ blow up in her face,” Ezra said reminiscing on those times. Speaking of, he still needed to call her. “Anyway, everyone clear away from the counter, I’m about to make you breakfast.”

To do this, he pulled one of his adrenaline syringes out of his pocket, rolled up his left sleeve, and before he injected it, someone grabbed his wrist, “You aren’t on drugs, _oui_?”

His eyes crinkled speaking softly, “No, this is my own adrenaline. This will help. Plus, if I did those types of drugs, I wouldn’t be here. I do appreciate the concern, Natalie.”

“ _D’accord,”_ the defender said backing away next to her girlfriend.

With that out of the way, he injected the syringe into his system and began cooking. They watched as he perfectly poured the batter into the waffle maker, put three large pancakes on the griddles, flipped the eggs, and even grabbed the syrup and gave it Anita, she was the closest. “Well, are you all going to stand there, or are you going to set the table? There is no slacking here, now hop to it!”

Everyone seemed to snap out of their respective stupors and grabbed everything for the table. Ezra flipped the waffle maker, flipped the pancakes, eggs, and managed to rummage through the fridge and found bacon. This was a must. He carefully searched the cupboards and found another pan to put the bacon on. With that being done, he immediately did another three rotations of everything, making a mountain of food in what seemed like five minutes.

Soon enough it was all on the table and everyone was gaping at Ezra in surprise. He noticed their looks, “What? I know how to make a mean breakfast. See, there’s chocolate chip pancakes, blueberry waffles, eggs both scrambled and over medium, cheese, and some ham for sandwiches that was in the fridge. Seriously, what do you guys eat in your spare time?” Mind you, he said this in a monotone voice, so no one expected it.

“Where did you learn to cook like a professional?” Anita asked.

Shrugging, “Grandparents ran a diner, I helped out when I was kid, really talented. Made it the most popular one in town.” He then filled his plate and then as a departing word he said, “Tell me what you think of all this when you get a chance, and if you need more pancakes/waffles, there’s more batter in the fridge, chocolate chips in the cupboard and blueberries in the fridge as well. See ya.” He said grabbing his jacket and dashing to his room.

* * *

Octavio was the first one to break the silence, “Is it me or was that totally out of character for him?”

Five sounds of agreement came from the other five legends. As they started eating, Elliott, Loba, Makoa, Park, and _Bloth_ all arrived. “Something smells good,” he paused as he noticed all the food and a missing legend. “Where’s our champ?”

Pathfinder answered, “He acquired some food, friend. Then, he left.” The smile went to a sad face, making the MRVN look crestfallen.

“Then who made it? I thought you two were handling it,” Loba mused, not having that snarky attitude that she usually does. It was obvious that her words were towards the Dark Sparks pair.

“He did. Surprisingly, he’s an amazing one-man cook,” Renee muttered loud enough for everyone to hear.

Makoa looked stunned, “Bruddas, you tellin’ me he made _all_ of this?” Everyone that was present before nodded. “How did he do it?”

“Adrenaline,” Natalie said. “I thought he was about to shoot himself up with one of Octavio’s syringes. _Mon Dieu,_ I thought he was going to…” she trailed off, to which Renee wrapped an arm around the defender’s waist. The blonde then leaned on the older woman’s shoulder.

“Don’t worry, I’d hurt him before he would do that to himself,” Renee promised.

Natalie sighed, “Must you always resort to violence, _chérie?_ ”

The Skirmisher nodded without hesitation. While she may be the brooding emo goth girl, she does care about those close to her. Right now, she doesn’t want to let the family she has to go down. 

Elliott then sat down right next to Renee and began stuffing his face. Just to tease him, Renee said, “How do you know it’s not poisoned?” That got him to stop for a moment, before shrugging and continued to eat.

Everyone shook their head at the trickster’s nonchalance before grabbing portions for themselves. “Old man, you better not choke, because I will not be taking care of you.”

Swallowing the bite he had in his mouth, Elliott pointed at Park, “Always knew you somewhat cared!”

 _“Baegchi,”_ he muttered.

Minutes later, Alexander entered the room. Makoa shot him a glare but said nothing. The gentle giant was still upset that he was the mole during the artifact hunt. The mad scientist went over to the counter before halting right in front of the food. He pointed at it suspiciously, “Who made this?”

“Ezra,” about seven of the Legends all chirped at once, almost like a choir. Natalie spoke up amongst the crowd, “Dr. Caustic. Grab some, it really is delicious.”

The trapper’s eyes softened just a smidge as he regarded the defender, “Very well, Ms. Paquette.” The man grabbed a plate and filled it with two pancakes, a waffle, and a generous helping of eggs and bacon, and then he left.

“Mmmmh~” Loba moaned as she took bite after bite of the wonderful breakfast. “Who knew that our stone-cold marksman cooked so well? Reminds of the days before that _demonio_ came into my life.”

“Don’t be speaking ill will of those who could easily end you, skinsuit,” said demon arrived into the room with a dissatisfied look on his face. To be fair, he always had a dissatisfied look on his face.

“You know I’m right,” Loba shot back, unfazed at his blatant threat.

Natalie felt small in his presence, and it was because of him that her friendship with Park was strained. While the animosity between the Legends existed naturally, it was only amplified during the artifact hunt. Seeing King’s Canyon like that still brings shivers down her spine. Especially the time she ended up in the infirmary after dealing with the prowlers. The cold from that place felt suffocating like nothing else.

Renee took notice of the defender’s mood and she kissed her temple, just to get her attention. “Babe, look at me,” she whispered.

Natalie’s baby blue eyes looked right into Renee’s azure eyes like a mental conversation was happening and with a few looks and subtle facial movements, Natalie pecked Renee’s lips. _“Merci, Doudou.”_

With the Skrimisher’s cheeks now flushed bright red, she muttered a ‘you’re welcome’. No one commented on it, but they all know that Natalie was the _only_ one who could get Renee to blush like that. Despite the age gap between them, anyone with eyes could see how perfect they act. Not to dissuade, but they do have arguments, sometimes small, sometimes big, and those can lead to some mind-blowing makeup sex. They honestly don’t want to be apart longer than necessary. The head honchos made it worse when they would separate the two. _That_ made for a quality game though. When the two would fight, they would somehow flirt. Not verbally, but physically. A subtle touch here, a subtle punch aimed _slightly_ lower. Not to mention the groping.

When breakfast ended ten minutes later. Pathfinder decided to do the dishes. Loba stuck around to entertain herself. Ajay and Anita both assisted the MRVN unit, just to make sure he doesn’t electrocute himself. Octavio grabbed his syringe and began twirling it. The rest of the Legends present all scattered about to do their own thing in the last few days of the off-season. Now that the newest Legend has been picked, they needed to hype him up.

Seemingly in sync, the Dark Sparks pair said in unison, “Should we go check on Ezra?” Dead silence. Then, they burst out laughing, making Ajay and Anita roll their eyes. Mirage was about to make a comment, probably something stupid, but Makoa stopped him.

They wanted to make sure he was alright. Every Legend knew something else was up.

* * *

Once Ezra was seated back in his room, he opened his computer that the Games provided him. From pure muscle memory, he opened up the call function, to call his sister. She at the very least deserves to know what was going on with her baby brother. He took off his coverings to finally eat the breakfast he made. All of the ingredients reminded him of simpler times before everything literally came crashing down. He didn’t know that they were still in existence at the time and well, became very wary of them.

Ezra began the call, and it rang. The reflection of the dark screen made him see the scars that littered his jawline, and his heterochromia eyes narrowed but shook off the thoughts. The call rang for at least thirty seconds before going to voice mail. _“Hey, it’s Eliza Steele and if you are calling about something that will waste my time, I will waste you. Now unless you are my baby brother, continue to pester this until I pick up. Otherwise, my declaration stands.”_

Scoffing, the familiar tone of the answering machine rang. That was when he started speaking. “Hey Ellie, it’s your wonderful baby brother. So you know, are you ever going to change that voicemail? Seriously, you wonder if people think you’re insane. However, I’m not calling to ‘pester’ you. I’m calling to give you an update. I made it to the Outlands. You always say that I wouldn’t ever make it out there and make a name for myself. Well, you were right and wrong.” He sat down at the desk chair and pulled out a pen and paper. Old fashioned, yes, but it allows him to focus on the topic at hand. “I do have an alias now, well, you’ve called me it for years, but I guess its finally sticking. You were wrong about one thing, I made it out here and I’m surviving. As usual. I want to visit you. I know we didn’t leave on best of terms, well, they weren’t horrible, but they were something to make note of. Whether or not you want to see me is one thing; actually making it out there is another. It took a solid month to just get that far out here. So unless you invented instant space travel, then… Sorry, off-topic.” 

There were a few seconds of dead silence while Ezra composed himself. He always liked to show his sister that he was strong, but she saw right through it. It was only the one time, but one was all it took. When _they_ left him. The newly appointed Legend let his tumultuous thoughts run wild in his brain. He pushed all those to the side while he thought about the real reason he wanted to call her. Feeling suddenly tense, he reached under the desk and pulled the hammer back loud enough to have it caught on the message, “Three seconds before a bullet goes through the door.”

There were sounds of footsteps running away. Ezra would have to apologize for that later, but he _was_ in his room for privacy.

“Sorry about that, Ellie. Anyway, I was going to talk to you about the one thing I prided on hiding from you but you found out about anyway. My love life. I know most would be like, ‘I don’t wanna hear about this or that.’. You, however, showed interest in my happiness and you were there every step of the way. Then we distanced ourselves. That was my fault, I’ll shoulder that. Back to my main point, I think I’m starting to fall for someone. _Someones_. I know it’s been two-ish years since I’ve really felt this way. It’s just… they are already in a relationship and I honestly don’t know which way to go. I try to keep myself alone as I should be, but I just can’t. I’ll say this, they remind me of them but they aren’t like them. One’s really adorable with how passionate she gets about her projects. The other, while looks threatening, melts around her. They both are such opposites, but they seemed great for each other. I’m pretty sure neither of them is polyamorous.” In a small voice, “I just want someone to love. Someone where I don’t have to hide who I am, what I’m really like.” He didn’t realize it before they hit the desk… his tears. Ezra hasn’t felt this small since… a long time ago. “Oh, would you look at that? I’ve let loose on my emotions. Last time you saw me like this was the day after. Still one of the worst days of my life, but nothing compares to-” A harsh knock on the door halted his sentence.

His voice hardened, “What?!”

“You’re needed in the common room,” _Bloth’s_ voice came from the outside.

“One minute,” Ezra said sighing, “Sorry sis, needed elsewhere, talk soon, yeah?” Then Ezra ended the call. A total of four minutes and twenty-three seconds he spoke. _Better than last time._ The Legend stood from his chair, checked his face, wiped his tears, and covered his face. Who could possibly want to see him?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Crypto calls Mirage an idiot, just in case. Hopefully, it's right and I'm not an idiot.


	4. Potential CPR Required

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So you get a sparring session in this. Mind you, me writing fight scenes? Hella terrible, probably cringe-worthy, but an attempt was made. I didn't try to complicate it, but I felt like it needed to be included. Other than that, fairly normal stuff, all things considered.
> 
> Once you read said scene, you'll either say 'it wasn't bad' or 'never do it again'. To be honest, I'm fine with either.

The conversation went well. The Legends were checking up on him, while thoughtful, but ultimately unnecessary. He doesn’t need compassion, he doesn’t need anyone, but his earlier words to his sister say otherwise. Secretly, he wants someone to be his rock, when he himself can’t be. Does having emotions make him as weak as he thinks it does?

Speaking of thinking, he doesn’t have a feel for all of the Legends’ combat prowess. The clips and highlights don’t do it justice. He was going to have to spar one of them. It doesn’t matter which one, but he doesn’t feel as confident as before. It feels like his old school all over. Everyone making fun of him because he couldn’t do this or that. Why he feels that way, well, he only ever wanted to fit in, be normal. However, that was thrown out the window when _they_ came. Ezra groaned aloud, he was going to have nightmares about it. No medication can help him with them either. While he’s no doctor, he could self-diagnose himself with either PTS or PTSD. He may, uncomfortably so, ask Ajay about it. It certainly feels like it, but he could always be wrong. It wouldn’t be the first time.

* * *

_“Ezra, I told you to hurry up! We’re going to be late!” Eliza said walking out the door of their house. It was a modest size house for the two of them. They were walking to their grandparent’s diner to help out for the day like they’ve been doing for years._

_Ezra ran out the door right behind his sister, beaming at her, “I told_ you _that you don’t have to constantly baby me. I can handle myself, Ellie. I do appreciate the concern that you still have for me.” Still, he was a child at heart at the ripe age of nineteen. Eliza was twenty-three._

 _“Well,_ someone _has to keep you out of trouble,” she teased with a smile. This was one of those rare days where her radiant smile wasn’t hidden by a face covering. Her almost dark-chocolate colored hair shined in the weather today, making it look silky than normal. Ezra just let his hair flow naturally, he was attempting to grow it our a little bit. He was getting it cut soon, so he haphazardly threw it back. Their opposite matching heterochromia eyes twinkled with mischief._

_Ezra decided to be a little childish, “Race you!”_

_That, however, proved to be a mistake._

* * *

Ezra gasped as he shot out of bed, shaking like a leaf. Why was he dreaming about _that_? Looking over at the clock, it said it was just shy of four AM. Typical. “Welp, not going back to sleep anytime soon.” So, he did what any sane person would do; he got dressed and went to exercise.

The walk to the weight room was quiet, as no one was up, and no one to bother him. He just wanted peace, and sneaking out of the compound constantly would only draw suspicion, something he doesn’t want nor need. As he entered the weight room, he noticed that some of them were missing from their respective racks. That and a voice said, “Couldn’t sleep?”

The voice was feminine, but only one could bring about chills while being in the same room. “Nope, bad dream,” his response clipped. He doesn’t _want_ to be harsh, but he also doesn’t trust easy. The last people who had that trust shattered it into a billion pieces and then blasted it out into oblivion. He’s just a _little_ short on trust.

There were a few beats of silence before the voice spoke again, “Do you want to talk about it?”

A sigh, “I do, but I don’t even know where to start.”

“From the beginning would be the best place, in my opinion,” they said, coming out into the light. Of course, it was Renee, wearing long skin-tight pants, black shoes, and a sports bra. Her skin shined in the low light which meant she has been here for quite some time.

“You get two questions, Renee, and I’ll give you two answers. Sound fair?” he asked as he went to the pull-up bar.

“Probably the most open you’ve been since you got here,” Renee snarked lightly.

“Watch it,” Ezra warned. To keep his breathing even, he turned around and took away his face covering and tucked it into the waistband of his pants. He started slowly with his pullups. He never did many of them, but getting a set in would be great. If he was being honest, pullups were his weak point, along with deadlifting.

“Why did you come to the Outlands if you lived in the Core planets?” Renee asked without remorse. _Damn, she’s going in._ _Honesty is the best policy, right?_

“Wanted to… get away from… it all. Not much left… for me… there. That and, I wanted... to feel... pain,” he answered grunting in between each pullup.

Renee seemed taken back by his brutal honesty. She didn’t ask why, but she could hazard a guess. She took a moment to appreciate the sight in front of her. She had to admit, he was pretty built- maybe built isn’t the right word- but toned, and from the Game footage he could move when he wants too. “I see,” she finally responded.

Ezra had finished his set of pullups before finding a weight, “Could you put this on my back?”

“Trusting me already seems like a foolish move,” Renee remarked.

“Never said I was smart. I have my moments,” Ezra retorted. The Skirmisher walked over to him as he got into the pushup position. “Middle of your back?” All she got was a grunt of confirmation. She set the weight down as Ezra began to do two sets of pushups.

Silence reigned between the two Legends. Silence except for the sounds of their breathing and Ezra’s grunts of exertion. “I’m still waiting for that second question.”

Renee tsked, pushing her bangs out of her face, “Give a girl a moment to think, would you?”

Ninety seconds later when she still didn’t ask a question, Ezra quipped, “Moment’s over.”

“Smartass,” Renee shot back.

Little did Ezra know, he felt much more at ease than he did twenty minutes ago. There was a strange feeling in his chest and he wanted it to stay and to fuck off and never come back. Maybe it was because he could feel her eyes on him, potentially admiring. The other half was because he felt like he was flirting with a taken woman. Flirting… something else Ezra doesn’t do well. The new Legend was definitely confident in many aspects, but the romance side… let’s just say that he was incredibly lucky to land who he had.

“I’m serious though, ask me another question. I mean the things I say,” Ezra said as he powered through his last pushup, rolling over onto his back, using his arms to cover his face. While she could pry his arms off his face, she can respect privacy. However, that didn’t stop her eyes from trailing along his body, again.

“Why do you hide your face?” The words were genuine and curious, but they still stuck a chord within Ezra’s heart. He tensed, fists clenching, and resisting the urge to cry.

He constantly berated himself in his mind. _Legends don’t cry, and Legends don’t get upset at the innocent things._ If he was smart, he wouldn’t answer, but he did say that he would answer. Lying about it won’t help. “An accident back in the core planets.”

“That’s only the tip of the iceberg there, Ezra. Tell me what happened. Not the full thing, but give me something here,” Renee whispered, her eyes making contact where his eyes would be.

A sigh escaped from under his arms, “What do you know about Titans?”

Renee’s eyes widened in the low light, then she whistled, “I can see why you don’t want to talk about it.” She hummed for a second, “I actually don’t remember… no… can’t recall what they look like, but I imagine they had something to do with it, considering the fact you’re asking.”

“They did, and for the life of me, I don’t know why. It was terrible, and I-” he cut himself off. Renee didn’t press him for more, she asked her questions, and she got her answers. As lackluster as some of them were, she’ll take what she can get. “They’re responsible for the scars on my face,” he whispered, barely audible.

“So that’s why you wear a face mask, to cover them,” Renee said softly, but firmly, making a statement rather than a question.

_He’s ashamed of them._

_Comfort him._

_Tell him._

Ezra nodded and clenched his fists more. He didn’t want to see the pity in her eyes. He was much more prepared for the scorn he was expecting to receive. So when he removed his arm from his eyes, Ezra found them looking at him softly. It certainly was… unexpected, but also… refreshing?

Renee was internally freaking out. She wanted to help him, but she only really knew how to help Natalie when it came to stress like this. So, she decided to do just that.

_Danger!_

_Don’t do it!_

_You know you want to._

The voices warned her, and there was always one who was on the same wavelength. It didn’t come up often, but just this once, she listened to the last one. One of her hands gripped his, her thumb rubbing over his knuckles. Ezra felt the tension fade, but not disappear. Instincts told him to lash out, to show that he wasn’t weak. Yet, he felt content. “Do you remember it?”

Ezra’s eyes narrowed at her question.

“It’s a yes or a no, Ezra. It’s like pulling teeth with you,” she shook her head.

“Yes,” he gritted out.

Renee’s face contorted into a small frown, “Then you and I have more in common than we care to admit.”

This perked Ezra’s interest, “How so?”

_Tell him._

_Tell him so he can understand._

_He’s not alone._

Blinking a few times to clear the voices, “I don’t remember anything about my life since three years ago. I didn’t know anything about myself and it was through the Games that I found out who I am. Who I _was_ ,” Renee said before she could stop herself. “So when I say you’re not alone in the nightmare department, you aren’t.” She scoffed, “Why else do you think I would be here and not with Natalie? Once I’m up, I’m up.”

Nodding his head, he almost removed his arm but stopped, “Could you, uhm, turn around so I can put my face covering on?” Ezra asked, uncharacteristically shy.

Rolling her eyes, “Fine, but I will one day see what’s under the mask.” The Skirmisher stood up and turned around, respecting his wishes. 

The Marksman gave her a shout when he was done. Then, they were just standing there, gazing into each other’s eyes. They seemed to be speaking without words. Eventually, Ezra broke said contact and coughed into his hand awkwardly. “Do you wanna spar?”

A singular raven-colored eyebrow rose, “Are you sure?”

Ezra shrugged, “I need to see where I stand.” With that, he assumed his stance. Renee did the same.

Instead of waiting, Ezra went to her first, with a quick jab. She parried it and pushed him back. “Come on,” she taunted. “Where’s the LF from the Games? I want to see that, Ezra.”

Bait, but not one he would rise to. “Maybe he died. Probably for the best.”

Renee then rushed him, she wasn’t using the Void for obvious reasons, and she still knows how to fight outside of it. Before he could react, she landed two blows past his guard. However, Ezra let her. When she struck the second time, he pushed her back foot, out of place before slamming his palm against her sternum. There was an audible _thwack_ and it effectively pushed her back and allowed him to rush her. Staggering from the blow, she tried to defend and did so poorly. He knocked her onto the ground, but he wasn’t going to call it there. It felt too easy.

Turns out, he was right, she leaped from the ground, grappling against him, using his weight as momentum. She threw him to the mat and attempted to pin him. Ezra slipped a hand around her left leg and pushed, effectively throwing her off him. Within seconds, the tides turned again.

If anyone walked in, they would see two people wrestling on the mats over the sparring session. Renee was the first to break free and back up to a standing position. Ezra sprung up from the ground, getting into a defensive stance. Renee knew she couldn’t win directly, even with the voices helping her. Sure, alternate realities are cool and all, but they are only possibilities. Ezra attempted to punch her on the shoulder, to disrupt her balance. However, that proved to be the opposite. He overextended and from that, she pounced, landing a solid punch across his chin. Thankfully, there was no audible crack, but he bit his tongue to keep from grunting in pain. _Okay, tiny woman, heavy hitter._

Staggering back, Renee pushed her advantage, sweeping his legs out from underneath him and pinning him to the mat. _One.. two… three._ “I win,” she said, breathing somewhat heavily, letting loose her tense muscles. 

Breathing in a similar state, “Good, becuzz ifh I did, then there would be a problem,” his sentence sounded weird. Renee was immediately concerned.

“I didn’t hit you too hard, did I?” she asked.

Ezra shook his head, “No, bit mah tongue when yah socked me. Be feelin dat in a hot minute.” He then looked down and saw she was still pinning him, “Uhm, you can get up now.” Thankfully, Ezra’s cheeks were already red, otherwise, Renee would have noticed the blush.

Seeming to finally notice their position, Renee hastily backed off him with a matching blush. “You did well for a first spar, but your jaw is going to feel it.”

“I’m already feeling it. Nothing ice won’t do to take down the swelling,” he said speaking somewhat normal. Renne extended a hand to pull him up and he accepted. “To be honest, I kinda knew I was out of my league, but that’s what a spar is for, right?” Ezra asked her, and yet subtly, was saying how awesome she is.

“You’ll get better with time, no doubt. Just try not to overexert yourself, that is one thing you did constantly. Not every target is going to be your height or weight. You may get smaller targets like me or Octavio,” Renee critiqued him.

“I’ll keep that in mind,” he walked towards the exit and he felt the soreness in his muscles. Definitely going to be an easy day before the season starts. The elder Legend turned back around to grab her things before she stilled. “Thanks, by the way.”

Renee turned around to respond, but when she did, he was already out the door.

* * *

“What the hell happened to your face?!” Elliott shouted as soon as he entered the kitchen four hours later. Makoa, Pathfinder, Ajay, Anita, and Octavio all looked at Ezra. They saw it but didn’t comment. Then again, they were more drawn to the breakfast on the table, and they certainly had more class than Elliott. Thankfully, most of the swelling went down with ice, but it did hurt to chew solid foods. Not the biggest drawback, at least nothing was broken.

“Sparred with her,” Ezra jabbed a thumb at Renee. He winked right after, no one caught it except her.

“What did you do? Touch her scarf? Or did you flirt with Natalie when she was right next to her?” Elliot said with a smug grin. The aforementioned defender squealed in protest and started spouting off in her native tongue, completely flustered, and also lost on the context of the conversation.

“Babe, most of us cannot understand you when you speak that fast,” Renee calmed her girlfriend.

“ _Désolée, Doudou._ So, what happened?” the baby blue eyes locked on Ezra’s, her hands cupped under her chin, curiosity shining in her eyes.

“Well…” Ezra looked to Renee who subtly shook her head. “I said something stupid and like children- I mean _adults_ \- we took it to the sparring mats. She kicked my ass, of course. Got a nice shiner as a souvenir.” Renee rolled her eyes, but didn’t deny it. The bruising on his jaw spread to his cheek and was clearly visible. Ajay came to look over and with permission from Ezra prodded at it. He was actually meaning to see her about this.

“Definitely did a numba on it, but you should be all gud in time for the first match of the season,” Ajay said, patting Ezra’s shoulder. “If you want, I could let D.O.C speed the process along?” The drone perked up at its name.

Ezra politely declined the offer, “Pain is a great motivator, plus allows me to plot some sweet revenge. That and I didn’t sleep well and needed a pick me up that wasn’t coffee.”

“That explains why I woke up and you weren’t there,” Natalie murmured. Only Renee heard her. Renee knew he was hiding _something_. From what the Void user witnessed last night, he was hurting like the rest of the Legends. One way or another, everyone carried hurt, but it seemed like he buried his deep within his eyes. No one noticed how Renee was staring directly at him, not even Natalie noticed.

Ezra’s thoughts were consumed how much he and Renee bonded over the course of eight hours. Still, Elliott was sorta right, but was he? Was he flirting with Renee? Not through words, but through actions? _I’m such a horrible person_. The very last thing he wanted was to be in the middle of someone else’s relationship. He does not want to be the catalyst for the break-up or arguments. His knuckles turned white as he gripped the counter.

“So who won?” Anita asked for clarification. Ezra snapped out of his self-deprecating state and pointed at Renee. “Not surprising, she’s a tough one.”

“You at least got a couple hits in, don’t sell yourself short, Ezra,” Renee huffed. “You make it sound like I’m cruel.”

There was a teasing glint in his eyes, “You said it, not me. By the way, how’s your sternum?”

“Bruised, thanks for that,” Renee said, rubbing said area with her free hand.

That got a resounding chuckle from each Legend present, except Natalie. “Why didn’t you tell me, _chérie?_ I would have made it feel better.” It didn’t take a genius to see where she went with that. That little quip from Natalie made Renee blush harder than before, almost doing a spit take.

Ezra absolutely lost it, his eyes now filled with mirth. Makoa joined in on the rambunctious laughter and he slammed his hand on the countertop, making everything… jiggle, for lack of a better term.

When everyone calmed down, there was silence. Not an awkward one, but a comfortable one. Ajay was watching the interactions between the Dark Sparks pair and the stone-cold marksman, who doesn’t seem so cold considering the past half hour.

Octavio left the room without anybody knowing. Loba wandered in, along with Revenant. Whatever those two did at the end of the hunt seemed to have pacified them, but they still hated one another.

The off-season seemed to be much tamer than the previous seasons. Park entered the room, “The advisors announced the squads for the next season.” This caused an uproar of everyone scrambling to see. “Come on, old man.”

Elliot raced after Park, “You can’t call me old when you’re older than me!”

“I have a feeling no one wants the new blood,” Ezra said offhandedly. Natalie had rushed out to go see. Everyone was excited leaving the room, and just like that, his shoulders dropped and he let out a tense sigh. Just like that, his eyes were filled with pain again. He mumbled under his breath, “Not like this is any different.”

“Look at me,” Renee said sternly, palms down on the kitchen island. Hesitantly, Ezra met her gaze, those azure irises burrowing into his cobalt and violet ones. “The longer you hide it, it will combust on you and it will hurt those you consider close. Take it from someone who knows.”

“Fine sure, whatever,” Ezra dismissed her but he didn’t want to admit she’s right about it. The only person he can vent to was galaxies away. Even though they are on the other side of said galaxy, maybe, he doesn’t know. Ezra is not an astronomer.

“Now come on, we better see if we are partnered or not,” Renee tapped his shoulder before leaving the room.

Now that he had the room to himself, he released another tense breath, this one even more so than the last. “What am I going to do, Eliza? When I land, it’s going to hurt like a bitch.”

Finally catching up to the Legends, Ezra looked to see them crowded by the list and they all had a knowing look. He paused as they all looked at him. As he stepped forward, he looked down the list with narrowed eyes. _Pathfinder, Revenant, and Octane._

Certainly an interesting trio, if Ezra had to comment on it. The next pairing was definitely something. _Gibraltar, Lifeline, and Crypto._ He could see the synergy between them, the medic, scout, and assault. The next trio read, _Caustic, Loba, and Bangalore._ Ezra doesn’t know how that’s going to work, but they’ll figure it out. Probably.

However, he noticed the next trio and it almost made it heart stop and restart all at once. This was just the universe messing with him. It had to be. He didn’t make any external reaction, but he was currently jumping for joy and cowering in fear for a fuckload of reasons.

 _Wraith, Wattson, and Leadflare._ The very next line read.

Both of his now assigned squadmates stood off to the side. “Looks like you’re stuck with us, _newblood_ ,” Renee teased.

Natalie was much more enthusiastic, _“Magnifique!_ This season is going to be great!” As a natural reaction, the young defender hugged the marksman. Ezra, caught unprepared, flinched and tensed. Natalie noticed immediately and he hated to see the young woman fret over him. Her baby blue eyes held so much concern it threatened to make him sick. _Why would she care?_ She quickly backed away, “ _Désolé,_ Ezra. I just got excited.”

Regaining his stability, he chuckled awkwardly, “Don’t worry about it. J-just warn me next time.” The stutter was small, almost could be mistaken as an adrenaline rush, considering the syringe he keeps on his person was filled.

Both of the women caught the stutter. Natalie was about to ask a question, but Renee led her away, leaving Ezra to absorb what transpired. He sighed, what was he going to do about it? Everything just became so much more complicated than it needed to be.

* * *

_“Chérie?_ ” Natalie asked when they were far enough away, back in Renee’s room which consisted of grey, white, silver, and black. Along with a little blue here and there, and a Nessie plush that Natalie won for her at some fair.

“Don’t take it personally, but I think he was experiencing a flashback,” Renee explained, leaning her forehead on her girlfriend’s.

 _“Pourquoi?”_ She asked innocently.

Renee separated from her girlfriend with a kiss on the forehead. She then ran a hand through her raven locks, undoing the bun she placed it in. “He was hurt in the past.” Seeing the confusion rise in her eyes, she continued, “Whatever he experienced is still shadowing him. The reason I wasn’t in bed today was because we were sparring. He had a nightmare, and I did too,” the Skirmisher admitted. She turned around, waiting. To say she was surprised as she felt two arms wrap around her waist and a chin on her shoulder.

“You’re worried about him, _oui?_ ” Natalie asked. The defender already knew her answer. She was worried when she even noticed the pain in his eyes. _Maybe that’s why he wears the glasses._ Even though he hasn’t worn them, he must not have seen a point in keeping them on when they already know what his eyes look like.

“Would you be upset if I said yes?” Renee mumbled.

“ _Non,_ because I’m worried too. I don’t like seeing anyone go through their pain alone,” Natalie said, breathing into Renee’s neck, her lips nipping at the skin.

“N-Nat,” the skirmisher stuttered. “I know, but he won’t open up. I don’t expect to easily, or at all. But from what I know, there was s-something the-there about…” she trailed off as she tried to withhold a moan, barely succeeding. “Damn tease.”

The whispered words sent a chill down Renee’s spine, “You know it, _mon ange._ ” Renee felt her body being pulled to her bed and she was looking up into mischievous baby blue eyes. “He’ll open up eventually, right?”

“Hopefully. Now what-”

Renee was cut off as Natalie pushed their lips together, locking them into an extreme game of tonsil hockey. The reason being was because they both unknowingly got what they wanted.

There was one thing that got all the Legends going: This season was going to be full of revelations.


	5. Initiating Drop Sequence

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You get to see the start of the season, which I am hijacking the name Boosted. Getting that out of the way, I will say that I will try to incorporate some combat scenes but they might take me a bit to format. Hope you enjoy.
> 
> Also, there is a realization here. You're welcome.

Another night, another set of nightmares. He keeps seeing them, he keeps seeing those images that haunt his stone-cold demeanor to the very core. Renee’s words came back to him, _‘The longer you hide it, it will combust on you and it will hurt those you consider close. Take it from someone who knows.’_ Yeah, easier said than done.

Maybe he _should_ combust, it would probably ease the burden on his chest. It’s only gotten bigger and he’s tried to ignore it but to no avail. He had to really focus on ignoring it for today. Today was a day, unlike any other day.

Today was the start of Season 6 of the Apex Games. Today was the day that he was going to have to be around both of his squadmates, who he may or may not have crushes on. The jury was still out on that one. Today was a day he actually was somewhat looking forward to. To prove himself, to show the world that he was more than just the ‘newest Legend’ on the block.

Still, that meant he had to get up and get ready. At this point, he had to get up. It was super early, but he knew that going back to sleep was _not_ an option. Ezra had to actually get ready for the day.

Not much was changed or done once he got up. He decided to wait and shower after his workout and cutting his hair. The process was simple. He took an electric razor, set the blade to the desired length, and just chopped it off. Now, his hair was smooth with the faintest hints of curls at the top of his head. He was seriously going out of his mind. If he even has to look at single Ti- “Oh, you’re up.”

Ezra looked to his door, thankfully he remembered that his covering was on. It was Anita. “Surprised?”

“Not really, shooter. Today’s the day that it happens to everyone. No one sleeps in on the first day of the season,” the soldier said. “New hairdo though?”

Ezra shrugged, “Wanted something new, and I was thinking about it for a while, decided today was the best day for it. Plus, any loose strands will fly out when we dive.”

Anita chuckled, “As long as you don’t go splat. That would be pretty embarrassing.”

“Maybe I will, just for comedic effect,” Ezra quipped. He enjoyed getting Anita to laugh because it sounded like she didn’t do it often.” Both of them left the room and were chatting on the way to the common room. The match was in a few hours, so there was not a lot to do.

“You better not, otherwise, we can take it to the sparring room and I can kick your ass all over again,” a voice chided from behind Ezra.

Ezra whipped around to see Renee, holding a mug, with a smug smirk on her face. “Oh?”

She casually took a sip of her drink before giving a confirmational hum, “Like the hair, by the way.”

Ezra _had_ a witty retort, but the complement blindsided him and he fought tooth and nail to keep a blush off his face. He partially succeeded. “I- uh…”

“Shit, Wraith, you stunned him speechless. Can you teach me?” Anita chortled.

Ezra’s eye locked with Renee’s and her smug expression got even move smug if that’s even a thing. He was glaring at the Voidwalker and she took it in stride. Ezra broke contact before grumbling, “I’ll show you one day.”

“Heard that, Flare,” Renee quipped.

“You were meant to, Ghosty,” Ezra playfully retorted.

Anita was chuckling as the two squadmates bickered. Then she had a question, “Are you two always like this? It’s been almost a week. Normally, you wouldn’t even bother with them.”

“It’s fun to tease him,” Renee said smoothly.

Ezra was smiling as he left the room, not bothering to retort. However, his heart was begging for a reprieve. He was almost bursting at the seams. Maybe the game will take the edge off.

* * *

Okay, he was wrong. The Games only made him have the jitters. Ezra was currently walking into dropship and they were told to go to their assigned squads. Ezra slid on his glasses and activated the contraption that resided on his left arm. This device is what filters his adrenaline and stores it. Right now, one of the syringes was being filled from the current rush he was feeling. Natalie was walking right next to him.

Correction, she was basically dragging him onto the airship. Renee was trailing behind them both, giving them a fond expression they couldn’t see. Renee wonders how she fell for one of them and was questioning if it was even possible. They certainly had their moments. Even for the short time that the Voidwalker has known the Marksman, she could see the subtle ticks of his character. Whether he was happy or not. Whether he was sad or not. The other Legends were uncharacteristically quiet.

_They’re watching you._

_Danger._

The voices warned her and she turned on the offending Legends. Her fond expression now replaced with a menacing scowl. Her eyes were telling them to move along. They all did, chuckling all the meanwhile. Natalie has also taken a liking to Ezra, and for reasons that she doesn’t even know.

The defender had a semblance of what was going on with her. It happened once before. The compliments, the need to spend time with them. It was fairly obvious to her, but maybe not to Renee or Ezra. Natalie was already crushing on him almost as fast as she did with Renee. Something about Renee’s whole character, how it looked like she needed a friend, made the defender’s heart lurch even more.

Naturally, Natalie is a very affectionate person, and she absolutely loves to give hugs. So when Renee and Natalie got together, she was _way_ more open with her affections. A touch here, grabbing her hand, surprise kisses on the cheek, and surprise hugs. How she wanted to just outright say it, but there was the rational fear in her mind that he may not see her the same way or that he was monogamous.

Asking him outright would be detrimental because if he didn’t see her that way, she would be heartbroken. Renee would care for her. They have been looking for something in their relationship for quite a while.

Natalie’s mind takes her back to just a few days ago, when she went to Renee’s room after finding out about the squad assignments.

* * *

_Natalie was pacing around Renee’s room. She let herself in, as Renee gave her the spare key, like how Natalie gave Renee her spare key. The defender was feeling all sorts of emotions, causing her to have sensory overload. While she doesn’t want to burden Renee about it, even though she helped her the first time, she just needs time to calm down and rationalize the information._

_She had to tell Renee. She would feel terrible that she was starting to catch feelings for someone else while she was_ in _a relationship already! Honesty would be the best path, because the more she would deny it, the more she wants to pursue it._

_Renee walked into her room to see Natalie sitting on the skirmisher’s bed, clutching her hair tightly in between her fingers. Reacting quickly, she rushed over to her girlfriend and slowly pried her fingers away. “Nat, relax.”_

_All she heard was muffled sobs and cries. The skirmisher strained her ears to hear the words, “I’m sorry.”_

_“Nat, talk to me. What are you saying you’re sorry for?” Renee murmured into her blonde hair._

_“_ Désolée, Doudou. _I just- I-”_

_“Take a deep breath first, let’s cuddle, then you can say what’s on your mind. I will not force you, but I am worried about you,” Renee said, laying them down on the bed. Renee tucked her head under Natalie’s chin since the skirmisher was two inches shorter than her. Natalie responded by wrapping her arms over Renee, tugging her impossibly closer._

_Minutes later, after all the possible tears were shed, Renee asked, “What’s on your mind, Nat?”_

_Her voice was hoarse as she said, “I believe I’m falling for him,_ chérie. _”_

_Much to her own surprise, Renee did not stiffen or get angry. Instead, she got curious. Who could she possibly have fallen for? To add context, Renee and Natalie have tried to incorporate a third into their relationship. Most of the time, people gravitate to one or the other, but not both. That would be a dealbreaker._

_When Renee did not respond, Natalie squirmed Renee out of her hold,_ “Chérie?”

_As soon as the defender let her grip slack on the skirmisher, Renee clutched Natalie. “Oh good,” she breathed, “I thought I was the only one who had a crush as well.”_

_“With who?” Natalie immediately asked, her blue eyes shining with hope._

_Renee let out a small chuckle, “Let’s reveal who it is on three, ok?”_

“Oui, Je suis prêt,” Natalie replied.

_“One.”_

“Deux.”

“Three!” “Trois!”

 _“Ezra!” they shouted in unison. Both of their eyes met before they squealed in joy, not that Renee will ever admit it aloud. They found out they both liked the_ same _person. That meant it could work, right?_

* * *

Fast forward to now, and the first match of the season was almost upon them. Everyone was in the dropship, awaiting clearance to drop. However, with the Dark Sparks pair having their poly-realization, and Ezra walking on eggshells around them as is; things were going to be tense.

Full of all kinds of tension, physical, emotional, and sexual tension. Ezra had to repeat Eliza’s mantra in his head in order to keep his cool. What was concerning was the fact that Ezra’s adrenaline syringe was filling up fast. They thought he was going to overload it, but what he did next surprised everyone. Well, except Revenant, because he’s… Revenant.

He took the one he filled previously and the one just filled and tossed them to the Skirmisher. With a flash of her hand, she caught both of them and looked to her squadmate in confusion, waiting for an explanation of why he threw them.

“You might need a pick me up if you find yourself bleeding out and need to focus for just a little longer,” Ezra whispered once he sat down next to her. “Also, don’t use it all at once, if at all possible. I’ve tested this on close friends. They’ve told me that my adrenaline is potent. It made them hyper, but uncharacteristically focused.”

“But-”

“There are no withdrawal effects that I’ve witnessed. Hell, I still ask them to warn me if anything happens to them, and this was three years ago. The only side effect was exhaustion. It puts your body through the wringer,” he clarified, cutting Renee off.

“Then what-”

“One’s for you, one’s for Wattson. The adrenaline high I was just on is over, so I won’t be able to produce more until the situation calls for it,” Ezra said, slipping into his Legend persona.

Renee had to switch to her professional speech patterns since he just called Natalie by her alias. “Alright, Flare. Since it is your debut, you feel like taking Jumpmaster?” Wraith offered. That was a pseudo-custom that has been around since… always if Wraith had to hazard a guess. They allowed the newbie to take the first jump on their debut to bring the spotlight to them.

“Is this some sort of tradition?” Leadflare asked, shuffling nervously.

It was at this time that Wattson showed up on Leadflare’s other side, humming a calm upbeat tune. “Are you ready, _mes amis?_ ”

Wraith smiled fondly at Wattson, while Leadflare shrugged. “Would you believe me if I said no?” Leadflare asked.

Wattson’s baby blue eyes warped to concern, making the male Legend’s heart lurch. _“Est-ce que ça va aller?”_

 _“Oui, j’irai bien, mon cher Wattson,”_ Leadflare replied instinctively, attempting to be soothing so she doesn’t have to worry about her pretty little heart. He immediately flinched as he realized what he just said. He looked straight ahead, not noticing the defender’s fierce blush. Nor did he notice Wraith’s eyebrows raise in surprise. Nevertheless, there was also a blush dusting the Voidwalker’s cheeks.

Awkward silence reigned in the dropship as it flew to World’s Edge. The Squad consisting of Leadflare, Wraith, and Wattson were all sitting shoulder to shoulder, but their hands were on their own legs. Even Leadflare had thought about getting up to relax, considering the fact his adrenaline was already a quarter full.

 **“Attention Legends. We are now arriving at World’s Edge. Welcome to Season 6: Boosted!”** the PA system said as the seats were lowered to hang outside the ship. Now was the time to wonder if he really belonged here.

* * *

Leadflare was the Jumpmaster and while he did win three of his matches, he barely did. His mind was recalling the fistfight he had on his final match. He barely won that, and he barely won his other matches, so now he had something to prove and this was no better place to do it. He still knew that he was here by the skin of his teeth if he was being honest. That and his internal walls were coming down because of these two. It drives him nuts but everything was in order.

He did a mental checklist of everything, his jumpkit? Check. His beau- _squadmates_? Check. Nerves? Check. Mask? Triple check. Glasses? Super Check.

The angle of the dropship started over Geyser and ended over Skyhook and Bloodhound’s Trials. Thankfully, the one place he liked to loot was Survey Camp, and it was just out of the way from the main attraction, East and West Fragments. Ezra watched about half of the dropship jump at the beginning and another quarter jump at Fragment. Just as it was hovering over East Fragment, Leadflare pinged Survey Camp and held up three fingers. When his fist closed, he jumped.

No matter how many times he does this, the free fall gets his blood pumping. The cameras in the arena got a focus on his squad. That, and he saw one of the big screens. Wraith was doing flips and showing off. Wattson was spreading the cheer and even Leadflare cracked a smile before turning around and giving a wave. He flipped around and prepared to land. His jumpkit kicked in before he picked a building on the northern side. Wattson and Wraith took the lower buildings.

Landing, and stumbling, Leadflare went into a combat roll, playing it off. However, the uneven ground caused his ankle to catch and pull. He grimaced at the pain but shook it off. Thankfully, the syringe in his arm was a third full, it would be enough, but only for a short time.

He opened up a supply bin and out came a Treasure Pack. Raising an eyebrow, he leaned down and opened it, finding a level three extended energy mag. Looking back to the bin, he found a Volt SMG. _Hmmm, odd,_ Leadflare thought to himself. Grabbing the Volt and ammo, he applied the magazine to the Energy gun. Along with the gun, Leadflare grabbed a level one body shield and two syringes. Moving on to the next crates, Leadflare found various healing supplies and a RE-45. Now, all he needs is one more, then he’ll be okay, probably.

Wraith and Wattson each were kitted out before Leadflare found them. They each had level two body shields and an R-301 for each of them. He didn’t see their secondaries but it didn’t matter. Wattson pinged energy ammo for Leadflare, “Thank you, Wattson,” he said in monotone. He cringed internally as he sounded so ungrateful. It didn’t help that he involuntarily twitched at his own wording. “Apologies, that came out much more-”

Wattson beamed at him, “Not to worry, _mon ami_ , the Games do tend to put people in another state of being entirely.”

“Get down!” Wraith shouted as a sniper round whizzed by the three of them.

Leadflare, on instinct, tackled Wattson to the ground, one hand cradling her head, and one under her back. Once they were behind cover and on the ground, he reached for the RE that he dropped. Wraith had peaked over her cover and fired a stream of bullets and was satisfied that she heard armor crack.

Climbing off of Wattson, Leadflare pulled up his Volt and looked for the next unsuspecting foe. Another shot rang out but it hit Wraith, shattering her shield. “Do either one of you have a grenade?”

 _“Oui, j’ai deux thermite,”_ Wattson replied. Ducking down back into cover, Leadflare held a hand out.

“I’ll replace it, promise,” he said as one of the grenades was placed in his hand. Using his glasses, he activated an algorithm that would determine the perfect throw. His eyes were the point of interest and the targeting systems. He visualized the area and his glasses gave him the perfect angle and let it fly.

As soon as the grenade was thrown, his hand was shot, shattering his armor, and he couldn’t feel his hand as a result. Biting down on his tongue, he was satisfied that he heard three armor cracks and a down. “Push up,” he ordered.

Wraith phased, the cold enveloping her once more. The Void was familiar to her, but the resulting pinpricks on her skin made her grateful that she did not have to stay in the void forever. The Voidwalker that Renee met two years ago reminded her, _‘Trust just your eyes and you’ll lose.’_ She heard the voices push her forward.

_All of them are weak._

_Go left, around the rock, one’s recharging their shields._

_You should tell him how you feel._

Ignoring the last voice, she pushed up wrapping around the left side of their cover and let loose her 301, gunning down the remaining squadmates. Two kills were on Wraith, and one on Leadflare. Wattson and Leadflare made it up to Wraith’s position to loot.

One of the death boxes was purple, which Wraith scooped up the purple body shield that lied within. Leadflare had to not move his hand while he searched for anything to stop his hand from pulsing. It was bad enough he couldn’t feel it, but he wasn’t about to let out his pain.

Wattson noticed Leadflare’s hand was limp at his side, so she pulled out a syringe and walked over to her teammate. She touched his shoulder to announce her presence. He tensed before moving out of the way, hissing in pain. “ _Mon ami,_ let me help you.”

Leadflare’s eyes were wild under his glasses. The natural adrenaline from the fight was fading and now the pain was replacing it. “S-Sorry… just irrelevant memories coming up and this isn’t helping,” he gestured to his hand.

“Let her help you before the ring closes, LF,” Wraith said, keeping watch.

Wattson approached the marksman before gently cradling his hand and putting the syringe right on his wrist. The regeneration feeling immediately eased the pain in his wrist. Looking down, he was surprised that the round did not dismember his hand. It honestly _should_ have blown his hand off at that range.

Leadflare returned to the here and now as he subtly shook his head. He had not expected the gentleness that Wattson showed to his injury. As soon as she was done, she smiled at him, but her smile soon turned to a frown, “Leadfl-... Ezra? Are you crying?”

_Shit._


	6. Trouble in Paradise

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am alive, been updating my other project in the RWBY fandom, but I hopped back over here to get another chapter out.
> 
> Hopefully, I am accurate with my locations and me describing them. If not, point them out and I will fix them.
> 
> Otherwise, enjoy!

Leadflare turned, putting his weapon on his back, trying to force the memories away. His mind was playing all the terrible memories and replaying the recent nightmares. They felt so _real_ , even though he _knows_ he was in an Apex match. That was all he could remember without having a full-blown panic attack. That one significant detail that he was in a different situation entirely.

Wattson tried to get his attention, but when she attempted to grab his hand, he gripped her wrist with far more force than necessary, drawing a hiss from the young defender. This action caused Wraith to glare at Leadflare with unadulterated malice. The voices had said that Wattson was in danger. Wraith saw a look of concern on her girlfriend’s face rather than pain. She was more worried about him than her own well-being. Shaking her head softly, Wraith let out a low whistle, gaining their attention.

Suddenly realizing that he was in fact _not_ back there, he released his grip, set himself down on the rock by the death box, and just started shivering. Whilst mumbling apologies, It was subtle enough to not be noticeable but noticeable enough to gain the concern of his squadmates. “ _Mon ami,_ look at me,” Wattson cooed, knowing how to handle panic attacks. Having helped Wraith with her rare occurrences means she knows how to help. “Wherever your mind might be, it is not real. Listen to my voice, _d’accord?_ ”

Leadflare’s mind was being shown images and of what happened, he saw it _all_ , it covered him, and the worst part was, he could do nothing about it. He wasn’t able to due to the sheer surprise of it. Even in his own mind, he heard a soft voice. It was reaching out to him, to try and pull him back. He willingly followed it, but his own demons, personified as _them_ were digging into his flesh, attempting to rip him limb from limb, but leaving him alive enough to relive it all.

When his head snapped up, both females were hovering over him. They pretended not to notice the tear trails just beneath his glasses dripping into his mask. “Are you with us?” Wraith asked, slightly wincing as it came out harsher than the skirmisher wanted it to be. She wasn’t adept at the whole ‘soft’ thing yet. Leadflare did not react to that statement.

Wattson, however, was a born natural. “That’s it, just listen to me. I know you don’t want to talk about it, but when you need me—I mean _us_ ,” shooting a look at her girlfriend—“we will be there for you, okay?”

All Leadflare could do was nod. Wraith shot a look of what looked like jealously over to the young defender. Leadflare, at the current moment, didn’t trust his voice. It still felt like his throat was all knotted up, like his lungs were pulling on the inner linings of his body, forcing it to condense. He had to remind himself that he needed to breathe.

So he did.

He took a large inhale for four seconds, before holding his breath for three seconds and then exhaling for seven seconds. Repeating the process was simple after that. Both ladies did multiple checks of their surroundings. There was still gunfire going off in Fragment and it vaguely sounded like Skyhook was getting traction too.

“I-I’ll be fine, just have to get my bearings,” Leadflare said, taking another deep breath He really needed to focus at this moment, because if he didn’t, he would be the reason that they lost. He couldn’t have that.

“Make it quick, we need to leave soon. The ring is going to close in five minutes, which may not seem like a lot, but time passes quickly in the games,” Wraith said.

“Understood,” he said dejected, his voice hollow. Both ladies shot each other looks, but they both knew that this was not the place to hash out issues. Standing up, checking his weapons, he asked, “Where to?”

The skirmisher hummed, “Swing by Fragment and pick off any stragglers, then make way towards Reactor. The ring looks like it’s going to close by Thermal Station by round four.”

“Hoping to snag a few kills on the way?” Wattson poked Wraith’s side.

“Maybe, but I expect you to get rough with it, LF,” Wraith directed at Leadflare.

A dry chuckle escaped him, “Find me another RE and I will gladly join the fray.” He gestured to his empty thigh holster where another pistol could reside. His left holster was concealed but it did show that a weapon was nested in the worn leather.

Nodding, they did their last loot checks, to which Leadflare found another grenade and handed it to Wattson. Repayment, he says, but Wattson believes it was more than that. As they left Survey Camp’s area, there were three crates, unopened. Pointing them out, Leadflare ran over and slid as he opened the first one. Inside, a level two Evo shield, ammo for his volt, a level two backpack, and syringes. Grabbing everything, he moved to the next which had an RE with ammo. He looked towards Wattson who winked and gestured to the crate.

Leadflare smiled under his mask because he was thankful, but now since his panic attack, he opted to stay silent unless he needed to speak. With a nod, he scooped up the RE and had the attachments ‘transfer’ over as he activated his passive. The only thing he really needs is Light ammo.

Thankfully, the last crate had loads of it, plus weapons. Wraith and Wattson grabbed one stack of ammo, while they left him the other two stacks, which he did thank them for. Dropping both mags, which were actually empty as he never reloaded it when he picked it up, two new ones popped from his legs and he slammed the pistols into them before crossing them and making the guns prime each other. With a minor display of skill, that one was actually pure luck. Normally, the guns don’t catch on each other long enough to do that.

“Show off much?” Wraith commented. Wattson, however, looked impressed.

“That one was luck, ask me to do it again, I have a better chance of shooting my foot,” Leadflare said before taking off towards Fragment.

* * *

Fragment looked like a kill box before it looked like a piece of the map. About two dozen, maybe, death boxes existed before the trail led to the choke of the Reactor. Using his glasses, he stealthy activated an option to scan for gun residue. To his non-surprise, gunfire was mostly on the left side of their current view. The train station and ‘building Alpha’ were the hot sectors of the area. That, and that’s where half of the boxes resided. Wattson took point as she looked everywhere, noticing the explosive residue of a fragmentation grenade, explosive aftermath of an Arc Star or two, and some bullet holes with blood coating the walls.

“This must have been Revenant,” Wattson deduced. When she heard nothing, she continued, “Only he would purposely spill blood like this,” her voice went to a near whisper.

Leadflare put his hand on the wall and constructed a holo simulation of what happened. He stepped back as the construction played. Wattson was right, it was indeed Revenant, and the poor sap who got in his clutches was struggling the whole way. The simulacrum did not spare any mercy because his other hand went right through the sap’s heart. Ezra flinched and suppressed more memories like pop-up ads on a computer. Neither of his squadmates noticed him flinching and continued to search for stragglers.

Closing the simulation, he looked over to see them peeking around corners. As he glided his hand along the wall, Wraith turned on a dime and shoved him in the chest. He was about to complain about why she did that, but a bullet embedded itself into the wall. The smoke trail was a great indicator. Immediately, Leadflare hopped over some cover and pulled out his Volt, risking a glance around the corner. Another shot trail and it whizzed by him again. “So, that’s how they want to play it.” Putting a hand to his comm, “So, the enemy has a massive hard-on for me. Are either of you available to assist?”

 _“Stay hidden, that Kraber can blow your intestines out,”_ Wraith said before the sound of her phase overrode the comms.

Leadflare had one option, and it was probably maybe not going to work, but a shot can be made. He reached a hand up to his glasses and activated his ultimate, Homing Beacon. Peering around the corner with his Volt raised, he looked in the general direction of the shot and fired.

There was a second between him pulling the trigger and the sound of someone getting knocked down. For a second, he felt nothing, but then he looked down and it was just ‘ohhh’. Dropping his gun, he clutched his midsection and immediately pulled a syringe out of his bag. He was very much alive, but something tells him that he survived by the skin of his teeth. Jamming the syringe in his stomach, it was only five seconds later when he felt relief. It was honestly a miracle he didn’t just scream.

Repeating the process again, he breathed an audible sigh of relief before popping shield cells. Wattson appeared next to him, “I thought she told you to stay behind cover, _mon ami_.”

Scoffing, “I never listen, but did I get them?”

Wattson giggled, “Oh, you got them, and Wraith got the rest, but she’s not happy with you.” There was more to those words that made Leadflare look up to see mischief in the defender’s eyes. She leaned down, “So, how did you hit them from this far away, over one hundred and fifty meters away, hm?”

“Ultimate,” he replied to the younger Legend. “Finally unveiled it, I haven’t been in a situation for it.”

“I see,” the defender pursed her lips—her very _kissable_ lips—before she stood up and peeked out of the building. “Do the advisors know about it?”

“They had to know about it to allow it. Anyone who complains about it can shove it up their a-”

_“Leadflare.”_

Freezing in place, he turned around slowly to see a _very_ pissed off Wraith on the floor above him. Her eyes were not the milky white he has seen them as, but her eyes could cut through _Steele_ . _Really? You make a joke about this while she is very clearly pissed off at you, nice one, Ezra._ “Yes?”

She jumped down and walked towards Leadflare, shaking off some blood from her knuckles before she flexed her wrist, hearing grotesque noises. Even Wattson grimaced, but waited patiently off to the side, mischief growing further in her eyes. “What. Did. I. Tell. You?” Each word earned him a poke to his chest. Surprisingly, it wasn’t a bullet, which he would rather have instead of looking into her eyes. When he didn’t respond immediately, she pushed him back. “What did I tell you?”

Regaining his footing, Leadflare said, “To stay put but-”

“No buts. Have you looked at yourself?” Wraith continued, and this had Leadflare on pause. He wondered why she was concerned now, as her anger faded subtly from her person.

“I’m alright, I’ve taken worse shots,” he said, idly rubbing a spot on his upper thigh. Both women zeroed in on that spot, wondering what exactly happened.

“Uhm, not to interrupt, but the ring is coming, and I do believe that this one _hertz_ a little more than the last one,” her pun made her eyes crinkle, but the situation was not a laughing matter. 

With that being said, the conversation halted, for now, the trio looted and scooted to Reactor. It was a quiet journey. 

On the way over, they crossed a bridge and skipped over some rocks. Leadflare hopped over first, making the leap with practiced ease. Wraith soon followed. Wattson was the unfortunate who was shot by a stray bullet, making her slip on her footing and fall in the crevice. “Wattson!” Leadflare’s heart spiked in fear.

“Relax, these air flows force us back up, the only thing it does is give you a sunburn and chips away at your body shield,” Wraith explained curtly, still slightly furious at his stunt.

“A little help, _s'il vous plaît?_ ” Leadflare peered over the edge and grabbed the defender’s hand, yanking her up, eliciting a small squeak out of the young woman. _“Merci.”_

 _“De rien,”_ Leadflare responded, before ushering her along as another shot whizzed by.

When Leadflare looted a death box, he picked up more Light ammo and grabbed a frag grenade. He had a plan and it was stupid, but it actually gained him seven kills during his preliminary matches. He set the grenade on a crate that Legends constantly walk by. Then, as they slid down the hill to one of Reactor’s branching hallways, the newest Legend reloaded his Volt and set a target on the grenade, his glasses lining up an approximate shot, the heat had messed with the systems. Now, he must play the waiting game.

* * *

While waiting, the Dark Sparks pair had scouted around and found they were alone for now. While Wraith checked again, Wattson was with Leadflare. The defender was admiring what was in front of her. The way his muscles flexed every time he shifted, the subtle looks he would shoot her way. Her crush only got bigger when they both found out that they liked the same person.

“Ouu, victims,” Leadflare said excitedly before pulling the trigger once. The resulting boom made him nod in satisfaction before looking to Wattson. When he looked at her, she looked away bashfully, with a light blush to her cheeks. Glossing over that, he looked back to see them healing and sliding down the hill.

Leadflare grinned, holstered his volt on his back, pulled out his REs, and glanced at the defender, “You going to join me?”

Pulling up and cradling her 301, she smiled, _“Oui.”_

“Not without me,” said Wraith returning from her paranoia run. “Don’t do anything stupid.”

Rolling his eyes, “Me, stupid? _Never.”_

While the squad was trying to recover, they did not expect to be put under fire so quickly. All this squad saw was a bandana-wearing Legend with two pistols mowing down the team. Before the third could react, they were knocked squared in the face, over the ledge, and into the lava pit. The burns themselves finished off the squad and the death box appeared. However, one of them had a special shield.

Wattson was about to finish them but he stopped her, “Let him get up, and then kill him.”

_“Pourquoi?”_

“So you get a kill too,” Leadflare said, gesturing to the frantic person currently jabbing the revival syringe into themselves.

“Okay,” Wattson shrugged and rubbed her hands together and started constructing fences around them. Wraith watched with a barely concealed smile.

Leadflare watched in stifled chuckles and snickers as the person got up just as the last fence was put in place. As soon as they tried to move, they got shocked, and then they stepped back and then got shocked again. The cycle repeated until they fell over from overstimulation. Electroshock therapy featuring Wattson everyone.

“Are you happy now?” Leadflare asked as she took away the fences to get to the box.

“Very.”

Leadflare looked over to Wattson with a concealed fond expression. The way her eyes lit up as she placed her fences and with the person literally killing themselves, well, that _should_ be cause for concern, but they are in a blood sport.

Wraith nudged him as he was staring for a little too long, “Ready to move?”

“Yeah,” he responded curtly.

“Don’t think I forgot about our conversation, LF,” Wraith said before catching up with the young defender.

“I hear you, Ghosty,” Leadflare called to her with a grin that made a dimple appear. _Eliza, for the love of all things good, help me out here. I am going to go straight off a cliff if I don’t separate myself from them. How can I though? They’re gorgeous but so perfect for each other. I honestly don’t think I would fit in their relationship. Seriously, I wish I could talk to you right now, even in the middle of this Apex Game. I think it would be funny._

Shaking his head when someone tapped on his shoulder, it was Wattson looking at him with concerned eyes. _Again, she doesn’t have to concern herself over me._ “You spaced out for a moment, I thought I was going to have to _shock_ you into shape!” A small giggle accompanied her pun.

“What’s the plan?” Leadflare asked his squadmates.

“I’ll let you figure that out, it seems you need to be thrown in the hot seat,” Wraith smirked.

“If you wanted me to throw myself into the lava, all you had to do was ask, Wraith,” Leadflare quipped back. “Maybe I will after we win.”

“Oh, such confidence,” Wraith said, not doubting the claim, but looking over to her girlfriend. She smiled and winked in return.

“Do either of you have a map of the area?” Leadflare asked. “I believe I have an idea. It’s stupid, dangerous, and will most likely get us killed, but I think it would be a great way to go out for the first match of the season.”

“What do you have in mind?”

* * *

“Hey, Gibby,” Lifeline said, gaining the attention of the gentle giant. He had just whacked someone over the head because they took his loot.

Dusting himself off, “What can I help you with, brudda?”

“What do ya thinks going on with Dark Sparks and da newblood?” the field medic asked.

Crypto chimed in, putting Hack in the pouch adoring the hacker’s back, “They are probably considering asking him to join their relationship.”

Both of his teammates looked at him with confused looks, “What makes ya say dat?”

“The fact that Hack has kept track of them on the ship, in public areas _only_ ,” he stressed since everyone still holds animosity against him during the artifact hunt. “The fact that they tried to make breakfast for him is one,” Crypto started, pulling a Phoenix Kit out of a death box and handing it to the medic.

Lifeline took the kit before putting it in her own backpack. Gibraltar hmmed, “The kid makes a good point. When have they _ever_ tried to make breakfast that wasn’t for themselves?”

“Two, he seems to be struggling with a similar problem,” Crypto said as Hack chimed something from his back. “His history isn’t great, but to no fault of his own.”

“I should believe you why?” Lifeline narrowed her eyes at the Legend.

He scoffed, “You don’t have to and I’m not asking you to,” _no one ever does anyway._

“I wouldn’t worry bruddas, because we have more pressing concerns,” Gibraltar said, pulling out his airstrike marker. “One of which is me opening the skies.” with one stretched finger, he pointed to two different squads fighting each other.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know if Crypto's drone is sentient or not, but I'm rolling with the fact that Hack is, so.... yeah.


	7. Developments

“That’s the craziest plan I’ve ever heard! I mean it too. I think Elliott could have come up with something even less crazy than that!” Wraith exclaimed at Leadflare, who was staring at her with a passive stance.

“You told me to get into the hot seat, and I am,” he responded monotonously. “You two are great for surprise attacks, plus if I find a DMR, or any sniper really, I can take key shots.”

“What about when you get snuck up on?” Wraith questioned.

“I have guns, I have my fists. I didn’t lose too horribly to you, but I also know you took it easy on me,” he replied, looking back at the holo-map in front of him. Thermal Station was going to get popular, not to mention that there are only six squads left, but only fifteen people left. That leads Leadflare to believe that there is a solo and a duo roaming around. Furthermore, he noticed that the squads left contained all the Legends. Fourteen out of Fourteen remained.

Leadflare smirked under his covering, “This will certainly be fun.”

“Fun for whom, might I ask?” Wattson inquired, checking over her pylon on her back.

“It could be fun for all of us if you let yourself have fun. Not everything is meant to be taken seriously,” Leadflare said, voice severely detached. Without saying anything else, he got up, pinged two spots for the both of them, and leaped away to get into his pseudo sniper’s nest.

Before he reached his spot though, he ran through Reactor to find more supplies and a sniper rifle. Lady Luck must have been shining down upon him because he found a Sentinal and various attachments. The only thing he did not find was tons of ammo. He only has twenty-one bullets, which in some fights, isn’t enough. However, it’s all he’s got, and he will have to make his shots count.

Not the first time he had to make them count either. When he got up into his perch, just overlooking Thermal Station, he checked to make sure he was inside the next ring. It was at that moment that memories started to assault his brain, of one of those times where he had to take the shot. He looked down to see his hands trembling. He hears their voices, asking why. He wonders what it would take to be free of them all. There was one option, but he was too much of a coward to actually do it.

Not when his heart was still trying to forge a new path.

* * *

“You know,  _ chérie,  _ he’s right,” Wattson said out of the blue while the girlfriends were moseying on down to the five buildings that overlooked Thermal Station. With a look of confusion from Wraith, she continued, “This plan of his is definitely… out there, but it does have merit. You did see his accuracy reports, right?”

_ Wait, those exist? _ Wraith thought.

Seeing she didn’t know, Wattson rolled her eyes, yet still was keeping an eye on her surroundings, “With snipers, he has a 93% accuracy rating out of the thirty total shots he took. Not to mention, they were the important shots.”

“93%?” Skepticism crept into the Voidwalker’s tone, even Bangalore isn’t that accurate with snipers, and she’s former IMC.

With an enthusiastic nod from the defender, “ _ Oui, _ he must have real steady hands, wouldn’t you agree?”

Narrowing her eyes at her girlfriend, who is  _ far _ from innocent, the double entendre clicked in Wraith’s head who looked away with a light blush on her cheeks. The giggle that emitted from Wattson signified that she won this verbal bout. “And how would you know? Unless you’ve been snooping around…”

“Uhm, I-uh, n-no. I hav-”

“Next time, invite me along,” Wraith smirked at Wattson, who had a fierce blush cover her cheeks.

“Wraith!” Wattson squealed softly, in order to not broadcast her location.

_ “As much as you think I’m accurate, could you two focus?” _ Leadflare’s voice came through the comms, with trace amounts of amusement. Both females awkwardly cleared their throats before a sniper shot rang out,  _ “Target hit, Wattson’s eleven.” _ Another shot,  _ “New target, white shields, cracked, Wraith’s two.” _

Wraith immediately turned her R-301 on to the second target, while Wattson’s respectfully put hers on the first target. Two more sniper shots and the audible sound of a shield being broken rang out with a callout of him moving up. Wraith rushed her target and she rounded the corner to see Mirage pulling a shield cell out, but dropped it in surprise as Wraith riddled him with bullets. He was knocked. “Sorry Mirage, you were in the way.”

He coughed before looking up, “At least you seem to be having extreme amounts of fun with the newbie, am I right?”

Wraith’s fist to his head was her response.

Wattson’s target was some poor sucker who got caught off guard. She knocked them, and as a result, finished them, recharging her shields. A neat feature that the advisors added in.

Leadflare, after having broken the third shields, rushed over to their position, sniper rifle on his back, pistols at the ready. He leaped over the cargo container in front of him and found the poor soul, soon-to-be victim, fumbling with their weapon before Leadflare gunned them down with thirty bullets, give or take five bullets.

After seeing a death box appear, Leadflare promptly looted and scooted over to his other squadmates. Wattson was clapping in joy as she lifted a Kraber out of it, with a thoughtful expression on her face soon after. She looked around before spotting Leadflare.  _ “Mon ami! _ Kraber?”

The newblood tilted his head in contemplation, but eventually said, “If you want it, take it.” She found it first, she decides if she wants it or not. There was a reason he avoided Krabers.  _ Another piece of the past, creeping up like a poison ivy rash.  _ Looking to his arm, he noticed the syringe was full, so opening a pocket on his jacket, he pulled an empty one and replaced it.

He checked another pocket and found two filled ones, “Wraith, did you ever give Wattson the adrenaline?”

The skirmisher appeared from behind a chain link fence, patting her pockets, “Nope, forgot to in the heat of the moment.”

The defender looked slightly upset that he didn’t want it, but hoisted it on her back, replacing her P2020 that he had this entire time. Leadflare walked over to the younger woman and held out his adrenaline.  _ “Quoi?” _

“In case you need to stay awake or mitigate pain, but do not inject all at once, or you’ll bounce off the walls and crash hard,” Leadflare instructed before doing the opposite with his and injecting it all at once. His senses were now beginning to shift into overdrive, the one downside of this hyperfocus was the tunnel vision. He has focused so much on one thing, that he sometimes fails to notice his surroundings.

“But what ab-”

“Do as I say, not as I do. It’s my own adrenaline, it doesn’t affect me like it affects you,” he gently chided.

“Alright, two squads left,” Wraith said, checking the map. The ring had just recently closed, so the squad was right before a zipline that took them to Central Thermal Station.

“Well, this has certainly been interesting,” Wattson commented brightly, leaning on the shorter woman. The sudden fatigue and labor that has gone into the game are starting to catch up with the trio. To make matters even better, it was turning into night.

Even Leadflare knew what this meant, he had to take off his glasses. His hand hesitated as he reached for them. The trembling came back and it was obvious to anyone with eyes. Honestly, how did he even get in? He knew his mental state was less than stellar, but at least it wasn’t Revenant’s level of insanity. Not to mention the good doctor. His sunglasses, which double as his ultimate usage, now off his face, he relied on his own accuracy.

Not to say he cannot shoot without them, far from it, it just makes it easier to account for other external factors like wind, elevation, and leading of his targets. His oddly-colored eyes seemed to have caught some light because he caught his two squadmates giving him a look. With a raised eyebrow shot in their direction, they both looked away, and with the ever-increasing cover of night, he didn’t see the blushes. Then  _ he _ blushed, realizing after the fact that they were staring at him for no other reason because they can.

_Lifeline was right, I caught the attention of Dark Sparks._ _Don’t they know they caught my attention as well?_

“If you had to hazard a guess as to where the last squad was right now, where would you think to look?” Leadflare asked, staring intently at the train station close by, looking through his sniper scope, granted it was only a ‘Ranger’ class HCOG scope.

What he didn’t see was the combatant climbing from below, down on the rock face, until he felt something off and leaking. Looking down, he saw the beady orange eyes of Revenant in his totem-mode.  _ “Got you, skinsuit.” _

Leadflare did not have time to react as he passed out before he could feel anything else.

* * *

_ That mistake cost Eliza and Ezra almost everything. There was destruction and chaos everywhere. The planet of Troy was certainly not with the IMC or Militia, but they certainly harbored both sides after the war. _

_Their grandparent’s diner was destroyed, and… they were still inside when that fucking_ **thing** _landed on it. An Atlas chassis has crashed into it, rendering the diner into rubble. Its beady eye looked up and locked eyes with him and Eliza. It was then that Eliza started pushing him away. “Move Ezra, move!”_

_ Ezra’s eyes were still on the Titan as it pulled its weapon from its back. An XO-16 Chaingun, and it was winding up. The fear that he was feeling was wide enough to plug the street. Ezra finally got his feet moving again and started to book it to anywhere that wasn’t there. _

_ The Titan had caught up with him and grabbed him, more along the lines of plucking him and having him look into the eye.  _ “What have we here?”  _ the voice of the pilot came from the speakers. Ezra’s hands grasped onto the top of the Titan’s fist trying to squirm out, but the pressure tightened.  _ “Tsk tsk, no leaving until I get the information I came here for.”

_ The pressure was steadily increasing as Ezra felt the oxygen leaving him, he felt like he was going to pop open like a party popper in a few seconds. However, that changed when the Titan lurched forward and dropped him to the ground, knocking the wind out of him, and vision fading. _

_ He didn’t remember much after it, except waking up in the hospital and having Eliza break the news. There were so many questions he wanted to ask, but only one came to mind. _

_ “Why?” _

* * *

Ezra woke with a gasp and wide frantic eyes. He immediately shut them as the blinding lights forced him to submit. His hands were free, but he felt resistance, and a voice, “Good, ya wakin’ up. You gave dem’ a great scare,” the accent was familiar and somewhat scolding.

“A-Ajay?” Ezra asked, and his voice was hoarse. How long has it been?

A hum was his answer and the medic continued, “On da bright side, ya won. Not bad for da newblood.”

“What happened?”

“Revenant climbed up da cliff and caught ya by surprise,” Ajay said, going over to his side, checking his forehead, his eyes, and his face.  _ Wait my face? _

“Why is my mask off, Ajay?” Ezra’s voice was tight, menacing, even if he was confined to a hospital bed.

The medic scoffed, “Ya think I’m going to check mah patient with a face covering? Ezra, I do not care what ya face looks like. Besides, they’ve healed well. You just lucky that I told Dark Sparks tah sit outside and wait for me. Otherwise, they would be here.”

“Can I have my mask back then?” Ezra’s voice was now visibility shaking, on the verge of cracking. He kept his mask on for a lot of reasons, and a lot of the time, it was a habit to have it with him. Sometimes, he didn’t take it off to sleep.

The medic sighed, “Sure, but Ezra, a word of advice: You don’t need to hide here. Everyone is here for a different reason and everyone’s got a secret, just don’t let it define ya.” She handed him his cowl before leaving the room.

Thankfully, he put it on fast enough because as soon as she left, two more entered. Both Renee and Natalie, both of which changed out of their combat attire. Natalie was wearing faded jeans and an adorable Nessie cardigan. Renee was wearing sweatpants and a black tank top, and a bandage was across her forehead down to the left cheek. While there were no visual wounds on Natalie, she was cradling her stomach.

“Congrats you two,” Ezra said, not looking at them. He had a feeling they were about to have an uncomfortable conversation.

“Hey, you did your part too, if I recall correctly, you had three kills, as one of them died later from bleeding out,” Natalie said.

“We need to talk,” Renee said, sitting on his left. Natalie took the right side. Ezra subconsciously tensed. “What happened that caused your panic attack?” Renee said right out of the gate.

“Renee!” Natalie hissed at her girlfriend. “ _ Doudou, _ you said we would be delicate.”

“Nat, you know that he will not open up if you skirt around the subject,” Renee said as if they’ve already had this argument before.

Ezra groaned, “I have a right to privacy you know?”

“Not when you had a panic attack in front of us, Ezra,” Natalie said gently. Ezra suppressed a shiver because of the subtle rolling of the ‘r’. It did things to him, his heart rate monitor ratted him out, but thankfully they weren’t paying attention to that machine.

Looking at Renee, “Remember when we sparred and I asked you about Titans?”

The skirmisher looked to Ezra, “Yes?”

“Try having one crashing into your grandparent’s diner, subsequently killing them because the building blew up, to then having said Titan pick you up like a bug and slowly squeeze you,” Ezra deadpanned.

Natalie held both hands to her mouth, eyes wide in horror. Renee seemed shocked too, but recovered faster, “Do you remember what happened afterward?” Ezra wanted to respond, truthfully he did, but he felt like they were digging for something.

Instead, he replied, “Why do you two care so much? I understand as a squadmate, but this? This feels too…” he trailed off as Natalie grabbed his hand, finally recovering herself.

“Can’t you accept that we do care? We may act all high and mighty at times, and we may have a tendency to push boundaries, but we do have people to call family,” Natalie said, still holding Ezra’s hand. It was warm, and some pieces of Ezra didn’t want her to let go.

Ezra just stared blankly ahead, just thinking. Renee took over, “Just think about it, would you? You are our squadmate for the season, so just try and adjust.”

They both stood up and were about to leave the room, but Ezra spoke, “What happened after I was killed?”

Both ladies stopped, glanced at each other before they both said in unison, “He got what he deserved.” There was a glint in their eyes, one that spoke far more truths than they did.

Once they left, he took off his mask and bundled himself under the covers. There were more pressing matters going on in his head.

* * *

Within the next six hours, Ezra was released from the medbay and with Ajay’s permission, went to his room. He needed to speak to Eliza. He  _ really _ needed advice. He was going through what one would normally call ‘gay panic’ except it was for two females.

With determined strides, he hoped that she would pick up. Honestly, he was worried, but not enough to warrant panic. His door opened and everything felt neat. He skipped dinner because he just wasn’t hungry. Ezra won’t be surprised if someone tries to visit him. Another piece of good news the next game wasn’t for two weeks, so he had time to settle his woes.

Booting up his computer, he set for the video call and started calling. He was changing as he heard the message, “ _ Hey, it’s Eliza Steele and if you are calling about something that will waste my time, I will waste you. Now unless you are my baby brother, continue to pester this until I pick up. Otherwise, my declaration stands.” _

He hung up and tried again, this was something he desperately needed her opinion on.  _ Hey, it’s Eliza Steele and if you are calling about something that will waste my time, I will waste you. Now unless you are my baby brother, continue to pester this until I pick up. Otherwise, my declaration stands.” _ Voicemail again.

So he tried again. And again. And again, until he gave up after the fifteenth attempt. Now, he was starting to worry. So, he shot a message to one of his old contacts to see if they can check up on Eliza. The last thing he needs is to be left all alone. It was bad enough the first time. The only reason he managed to stick around was because of Eliza, after what Ezra called the ‘Day I would rather forget’, he followed in his sister’s footsteps. She was the one who had to care for him.

He found out the reason that Titan was after him. Apparently, his family has some nice dealings in the underworld of the Core Planets. The IMC couldn’t touch those connections, and Eliza had filled him in on these after he recovered from the hospital. Yet, he refused to be the one who would kill needlessly.

Eliza wouldn’t let him go without training him in defense though. So, that’s what he did. During that time, he learned a lot, how to throw knives, how to parkour properly, and how to shoot a gun. Ezra chuckled as he remembered what happened the first time he used a jump kit. At least he was falling with style. Then, he met-

A knock at the door halted his thoughts, and then his computer rang, with a message from his contact. Deciding to read the message later, he donned his mask again and cracked the door open. It was just Natalie. “Hello?”

_ “Bon soir, mon ami. _ I brought you dinner since you weren’t there. You and Renee have that in common,” she giggled and it made her look carefree like she wasn’t an Apex Legend.

Opening the door, Natalie was holding a tray that had burgers and fries. “Where did you-”

“Surprisingly enough, there is a takeout place not too far from here. Everyone decided to have a ‘cheat’ day after the game. It sort of became a tradition after the Hunt, so it is fairly new and well, as I said, you haven’t eaten,” she said with an increasing red face.

Ezra chuckled, grabbing the tray, and putting it on the desk. He noticed that there were four new messages as well.  _ Later, first, get Natalie out in the politest way possible. _ “Thank you, by the way, for uhm… helping me with my panic attack. It was just… memories resurfaced…”

_ “Non, no, je comprend. _ I was  _ ecstatic  _ to help you,” Natalie said with a cheesy grin, but it faltered,  _ “Désolé, _ that was inappropriate.”

“I don’t mind the puns, Natalie. I appreciate you taking the time to help, and that’s all there is to it,” Ezra said. “I’ll talk to you tomorrow, alright? Renee too.”

Just like that, Natalie’s thousand-watt smile returned, “Okay, see you tomorrow Ezra!”

With that, he shut the door, and finally checked over those messages. Ezra would have lost his composure if not for Eliza’s teachings. He needed to properly digest this.

_ Her birthday did not go as well, she ended up falling ill yesterday. _


	8. Breakthrough

Ezra sat hunched over his desk for the entire night, messaging his contact back and forth. When he asked about how bad she was, he got,  _ Recently developed cancer _ . Which meant, she was in the hospital with a lot more than just superficial wounds. When he asked what happened, he received,  _ We got turned around, and we had an unexpected guest to her birthday.  _ Ezra almost punched a hole through the desk. Someone was sabotaging their operations.

While he didn’t partake in them, he knew they happened, and sometimes they went downhill. He instead asked if they had any suspects, and got,  _ Only a few showed up. _ Ezra sighed before telling his contact to keep him updated on her condition and when she recovers from her ‘illness’. Right now, he needed to vent and there was no one to pester. Sure, he could ask to spar, but with his mindset right now, it would not be advisable.

Ezra then changed out of his clothes and put on a sleeveless shirt and shorts, but grabbed one of his adrenaline syringes. The newblood outfitted his mask with a breathable mesh, so he wouldn’t suffer from oxygen deprivation. He was going to push himself until he couldn't walk. Chances are, someone will find him passed out on the floor in the track and field room. The compound was certainly huge, something Ezra has come to appreciate.

Once Ezra had navigated to the track, he did some pre-exercise stretches before taking some of the syringe’s contents and injecting it into his system. The scars on his left arm were visible and one of them was particularly nasty. Surprisingly, that one was not his own doing, but that’s for another time. Pocketing the syringe in a padded pocket, he felt the effects immediately and took off in a light sprint. It was between a fast-paced job and a full-tilt sprint. He was running to vent and nothing more. Even if he knew someone was coming to watch him. Even though it was close to midnight, he figured that the Legends would need to sleep after the match. That and Ezra needed to run off the fast-food he recently consumed.

Five laps in, he was barely breaking a sweat. Ezra was still angry, his mind was going back to the last time he saw his sister, right before he left for the Outlands. She was stone cold, but even Ezra knew it was a front. He knew she was holding back tears, and the desire for him to stay was palpable. It was on the tip of her tongue, but Eliza knew that Ezra was set in his decision.

Ten laps in, one constant beam of sweat was running down the side of his head. His footsteps were slightly echoing off the walls. The adrenaline was pumping through his veins and setting a fire throughout his body. He was feeling it and he loved this feeling, the feeling that he could go all day. Ezra was starting to focus on his running more, but a fleeting thought if that was the last time he was going to see his sister again. Mid-stride, he took the rest of the adrenaline and injected it into his bloodstream. The fire was renewed and he ran.

Thirty laps in, he was starting to sweat what one would call ‘normally’, but he was still going. His legs were starting to get that tense burn from exertion. Fifty laps. Sixty laps. Ezra was still struggling to let that last thought go. He needed to drop it and focus and be patient. However, he was running short metaphorically and physically, on patience. He wanted to know that his sister was going to live and that she would be able to explore life outside the ‘family business’. Maybe Ezra would be an uncle one day. At seventy-five laps, he paused.

_ Would I even want to be a father one day? _ That thought now completely dominated his mind even though his head was throbbing as the blood rushed from his brain to his heart to the rest of his body. He was panting now and in need of water, a shower, and a bed. Maybe not in that order, but the last two in the order didn’t matter.

What did matter was water. He found the closest place for just some plain tap water before he heard footsteps. Instantly, he was on alert.  _ Who was still up at this hour? _ Forcibly slowing his breathing, trying to hide the panting he was just doing, he crept around the corner to see the fridge open and someone bending to look into it. He didn’t know who this was, but once they stood up, a blush covered his face.

On the bright side, it didn’t matter because he was winded anyway, so the color was already there. On the debatable downside, it was Natalie who was at the fridge. She was snacking on a piece of cake.  _ When did they get cake?  _ However, his thoughts were lead astray as he couldn’t deny the view of Natalie’s spectacular a-

That was when Natalie turned towards Ezra, noticing him for the first time. Natalie let out a surprised ‘eep!’ as she put a hand over her racing heart.  _ “Mon Dieu, _ Ezra! Don’t scare me like that!”

Letting go of the air in his chest, he exhaled and started panting, “What are you still… doing up?”

“I could ask you the same thing,  _ mon ami _ ,” Natalie replied.

After taking a few deep breaths, Ezra said breathless, “I needed to run. My sister is in the hospital.” He mentally berated himself, why did he say that?

“Is she…?”

“No, just a routine checkup,” he lied.

“Why a hospital?” she asked.

Well, there is one way to bend this, “She beat skin cancer, and the doctors are checking her over to make sure it didn’t come back.” It’s technically a lie of omission, but she doesn’t need to know that.

“Is she in the Core planets?”

“Yeah, in a backwater planet by Frontier standards, but there are a few medical professionals that have treated my family for quite literally generations,” Ezra said, which he was blatantly staring at Natalie’s figure. She was wearing a loose t-shirt that looked suspiciously like Renee’s, and some yoga pants. They were accenting her figure really well.

“Ezra? Ezra!” Natalie raised her voice, snapping him out of his staring. If Ezra paid any attention, he would realize how much of a creep he was being, but he would also notice the blush that coated the young blonde’s cheeks.

She felt… wanted. It was something she never understood from Renee, because who would date a blonde nerd who likes electricity more than people. Her thoughts were going rampant but managed to keep her composure, at least more than the new blood. “S-Sorry,” Ezra stuttered, rubbing the back of his neck, then grimacing. He walked right up to her and Natalie swears someone turned up the thermostat in here. She felt small but in a good way. While he is significantly taller, maybe by about seven inches, she thought he was going to pick her up or something romantic.

In actuality, he was getting a water bottle from the fridge that Natalie still had open. She took a deep breath but that did not stop her heart from hammering in her chest. From the light of the fridge, she saw the sweat-covered sleeveless shirt and smelled the scent of it. It was smelly, yes, but something about it made Natalie have a ‘crush panic’. It made her squeeze her thighs together and she prayed that she would not have to change her panties.

For Ezra, he could smell the perfume she uses as well as the oil and grease from her projects. It was definitely an odd mixture, but Ezra didn’t outright despise it. His oddly colored eyes watched her baby blue ones flicker to and fro. She was searching for something or was inside her own thoughts. In basic terms,  _ Natalie.exe is not responding. _ “Nat?”

Her nickname brought her out of her thoughts. The girl blushed, again, and excused herself. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Ezra!” She shut the fridge, plunging the room into darkness once more.

Once she rounded the corner, she saw a sleepy Renee rubbing her eyes. When the raven-haired woman spoke, her voice was thick with sleep, “Where dichu go?” It sounded slurred like she was drunk.  _ Wait _ . Renee did end up having a few drinks since Natalie had asked to just have one. Elliott made her Appletinis and she slammed back three of them without having any food. So to say she was buzzed was an understatement.

“Got hungry, why are you out of bed?” the blonde asked her girlfriend.

“I missssed you, and….”

Natalie hugged the smaller woman and guided her back to her room. When they arrived, Natalie set Renee down on the bed, and the blonde crawled in behind her. Renee won’t ever admit this, but she likes being the little spoon. Having Natalie’s arms around her, it makes her feel  _ safe _ and loved. The voices are quieter like her alternate versions are enjoying the sensation. “I heard Ezra,” Renee mumbled. Natalie tensed for a split second, but it was all she needed. Turning in Natalie’s arms, “What happened?”

“ _ Doudou _ , my crush on him just increased  _ sooo _ much,” the blonde squealed in horror like it was the worst thing in the world.

Much to Natalie’s shock, Renee chuckled and whispered, “Is that really a bad thing?” She finished with a kiss to Natalie’s pulse, which startled the blonde.

_ “N-Non.” _

“So what’s the worry?”

“He told me his sister was in the hospital,” the younger woman said in a rush.

The older woman raised an eyebrow, “And… what did he say about it?”

“The doctors are checking to see if she got skin cancer again,” Natalie said.

“I see,” Renee replied, “By the way, what was he doing up?”

The blonde huffed, “Running on the track, but I-  _ Merde _ I forgot to ask him why he was all sweaty.”

“Ask him tomorrow?” Renee asked calmly.

_ “Oui. Je t’aime, mon fantôme.” _

“Love you too, Nat.”

* * *

Ezra woke up feeling refreshed but was still antsy. After Natalie had left, he downed the water he had in hand and took a cold shower before easing it into a lukewarm one. After running for that long, she should have collapsed from exhaustion, which was his original plan. His thoughts remained hooked on his last thought. It came back again and again in his own head.

_ Would I even want to be a father? _ Could he be? There was so much to worry about with having a child. So much so, that he couldn’t function and he stared blankly ahead, right ou his window overlooking the compound. To distract himself, he started to think about Natalie from last night. Which turned into her having a swelled belly and-

Ezra stood up angrily. Why was he even thinking of that? She’s in a committed relationship, he shouldn’t be coveting her like that. That also goes for Renee. Ezra’s heart lurches at his last relationship. He was with twins, and they were something else. One was entirely talkative and the other was more of the silent one. Except in the bedroom that is, and they both were perfect. Until he found out what they were really after.

Before he could continue his line of thought, someone knocked on the door. “You up, shooter?”

“Yeah yeah, Anita. I am,” Ezra lied. He’s been up all night. It seems he was still gunning for the ‘drop till he’s exhausted’ idea.

“Good, since you missed the celebration of your first win, we’re doing it again,” the ex-IMC soldier said before the sounds of her footfalls dissipated.

Rubbing his eyes and moving over to his dresser, he looked into the mirror. The scars on his chin were present, and some went to the dip of his neck, some of them should have been enough to kill him. However, being the lucky bastard he is, he survived and is still kicking. “I don’t need a party, what don’t they understand?”

Donning a balaclava, which was decorated in dark swirls and surprisingly it matched how he felt. Still no update, but then just as he was leaving the room, he got a notification. Checking the message,  _ Good news, she’s all cleared and she asked where her present is? _ The tone implies confusion, but Ezra took a deep calming breath, she was fine and thankfully would recover. Then again, he didn’t know the extent of it, and there still was the mystery of what happened. As for the present, he had something arranged before he left.

Once he arrived in the common room, every Legend was present. This raised red flags in Ezra’s mind, but it wasn’t that they were there but the fact that they all were seated in an intervention kind of way. Alexander was staring with a piercing glare, Revenant was standing furthest back with a low chuckle. Ajay was slung over Anita’s lap.  _ Bloth _ and Makoa were playing a round of chess. Pathfinder was with Loba over by the kitchen island. Renee and Natalie were staring right at Ezra like prey. Their eyes were far more telling than the newblood would have liked.

“Did I miss a memo?”

Loba happened to answer first, “Don’t worry darling, today is all about you.” Again, she has this tone that made it sound sultry. It hyped Ezra up as much as it scared him.

“That does not exactly inspire confidence in me, like at all,” he drawled out. Rubbing the bridge of his nose, he exhaled and felt light-headed and stumbled. Renee and Natalie were the first ones to react.

After a moment of silence, Natalie spoke, “Are you alright? What did you do?”

“Considering when you saw me last, I ran seventy-five laps without stopping and was finally taking a break,” He said in a mumble, purposely muffling his voice.

“You’re saying that you ran seventy-five laps…  _ without _ stopping?” Renee asked her voice tense.

“Uh huh,” he hummed. “Would have been awesome if I did, maybe then I’d be able to sleep without a problem. Slowly wrenching out of their grip, he walked away. “I do appreciate you trying to throw a party, but I honestly don’t need one,  _ nor do I want one _ ,” he whispered the last part to himself. “However, I will make it up to all of you. I just… need time to myself.”

The two girlfriends exchanged a look and eventually settled back onto the couch where Natalie draped herself across her girlfriend’s lap. Renee took up the task of running her fingers through her blonde tresses. A sigh escaped the younger woman, “I wish he would open up just a little. He should know that he can rely on us.”

“Nat, you know how long it took you to break down my defenses?” Renee asked instead of responding.

_ “Oui, Je me rappelle.  _ The longest few months of my life, and it was worth it.”

“Would it be safe to assume that maybe he’s not ready to open up?” Renee asked softly, bopping Natalie’s nose.

“I know, but-”

“No buts, Nat. I opened up to you when I was ready, and not a moment too soon. While you are right to have concern over him, too much and he will recede further and further back until he is out of anyone’s reach,” Renee gently explained. "After all, I can relate to him on that."

Instead of responding, Natalie leaned up and kissed Renee’s chin. Renee smiled and gently hooked her fingers under her chin and pulled her up to a slow, passionate kiss. An ache grew between them. They both felt it, and it was not from their relationship, it was amazing all things considered. No, it was from knowing someone was missing.

* * *

_ It was years after everything happened. Ezra was now twenty-two, and he learned a few new tricks. Eliza had always been able to beat him in play fighting, for reasons he didn’t understand, but after this, he very much understood. Knocked his ego down a peg or two, but it was certainly the humble ass-kicking he needed. _

_ “Since when have you been apart of this?” Ezra asked his elder sister. _

_ “Remember that accident when you were fourteen?” Eliza asked nonchalantly. _

_ “That long, huh?” _

_ She smiled a toothy grin at her younger brother, “Yeah, I’ve had to keep an eye on you. I had to make sure you were alright.” _

_ The two of them were walking in an underground bunker on the planet Troy. Oddly enough, it was a secret path just outside in the garage. He was always spending time there. Now that Ezra thinks about it, Eliza  _ always _ snuck up on him in the garage. “When exactly did you take over?” _

_ Eliza’s mood became serious and Ezra stopped, feeling like he just committed the greatest sin in the Frontier. “Do you really want to know the answer?” _

_ Shrugging, figuring he had nothing to lose, “Lay it on me.” _

_ Her mismatched eyes locked with his mismatched eyes. The phrase ‘looking into a mirror’ comes to mind as their blue and violet eye match each other. “Day before that IMC jackass dropped a Titan on Pop and Gram.” _

_ “We were going there to celebrate, weren’t we? To celebrate your achievement?” Ezra said, staring intently at his sister, even if she was three inches shorter. His posture said that he was tense. _

_ “We were-” _

_ “So you getting a job was a lie then,” Ezra cut her off. “You know I tell you absolutely everything, right?” _

_ “But I-” _

_ Ezra held up a hand, glaring, “Let me finish. How many times have you lied to me?” _

_ “Ezra,” Eliza said, voice wavering. If he looked hard enough, he could see the guilt on her face. Along with her bottom lip quivering ever-so-slightly. _

_ “What was the one thing you always promised me?” Ezra said, voice also wavering. “I thought we promised  _ never _ to lie to each other.” _

_ “Did you ever think of how this affected me?” Eliza’s voice was small, and even if he was the cause for it, he hated how she sounded. Eliza was always the stronger one. Ezra’s gut twitched in guilt, his mouth set in a firm line. “I made a promise to Pops.” Ezra opened his mouth to respond but was cut off as Eliza grabbed him and pulled him close. Her arms wrapped around his waist and buried her head in his chest. “He asked me to keep you out of it for as long as I could. I never wanted to lie to you, and that was the only time. The job thing was never a lie.” _

_ Eliza was about to pull back, but Ezra wrapped his arms over his sister’s shoulders. “I believe you. Let me guess, you wanted to protect your baby brother?” _

_ Eliza nodded into his chest, “After Pop and Gram were gone, you’re the only family I have left.” Their parents died years ago on some Frontier adventure. They were dropped off here on Troy as children. Ezra’s mind went back to the day their parents left without a word. Not even an ‘I love you’ or ‘Goodbye’. _

_ “Then I’ll stick by you, but on one-no two conditions,” Ezra said, allowing Eliza to back up. _

_ “Name them.” _

_ “I don’t do any of the dirty deeds. If you really want to keep me ‘innocent’ or whatever, I don’t kill because someone points and says ‘kill’,” Ezra said firmly. _

_ “That someone would be me, but continue,” Eliza cut in, gaining a look from her brother. _

_ “Second, find someone who will care for you, and I don’t care who it is, even if it’s the girl from the café you frequent.” _

_ “What?!” she screeched. _

_ “Did you think you were subtle? Eliza, come on, you coulda told me and I would accept it. Love who you wanna love, and move on with your life. It certainly won’t stop you.” _

_ Once they separated, finally, she said, “Fine. I really wish you didn’t find out this way, but uhm, we’ve been dating for five months.” _

_ “Congrats, now don’t lose her, you’ve been smiling a lot more and the look suits you,” Ezra said, wiping Eliza’s eyes free of tears like she did for him when he was younger.  _

_ “Promise me something?” _

_ “Name it.” _

_ “Find someone to love as well, the Frontier can be a real drag all by your lonesome,” Eliza said with a squeeze of his hand. _

_ “What if I told you that I’m poly? So I can love  _ someones? _ ” _

_“Ezra!”_ _Eliza shouted as she swatted his shoulder. All the while, he was smirking and sniggering. Just like that, the conversation moved along nicely._

* * *

Ezra woke from his dream, feeling an ache in his chest. However, it wasn’t like the previous ones. Ones where he wishes he could claw his heart out. This one was pleasant, given the dream’s content, he was surprised that he was not fuming over it. Maybe thinking about the good times was what triggered this pleasantness. He opened his eyes and felt his head throb.  _ However, skipping meals and not drinking water… _

However, he shot up when he heard his computer chimed with a message.

A message from Eliza. He scrambled over to the device and turned on his messages. One single message, from the person he so desperately needed to talk too.

_ Hey baby bro, we need to talk. _


	9. It's Tuesday

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I am in the mood for tacos, yes the chapter title is intentional.

Ezra scrambled to respond and he double and triple checked, going through all the ways he normally contacts her but found that it was a genuine message from her. Now, he just needed time to speak to her. After all the time he spent with Natalie and Renee, he was going to fess up sooner or later about his developing feelings.

When he admitted it to Eliza before, it was only a passing crush. At least, that is what it started as. The more he spent time with them, the more he noticed how much they light around each other _and_ him. The way Natalie’s eyes would twinkle sometimes when she was talking. How she bobbed her head when he was speaking. It even goes down to the way she pursed her lips when she was concerned about him and his ever-lasting nightmare/panic attack. Renee worked in the same way, but she was subtle about it. Even though Renee acts just like Natalie with the subtle differences, the reactions are not as outrageous. They seemed calmer, composed, but underneath it all, she was the same as Natalie. The glint in her eyes she gets when someone watches her. Now, _that’s_ something to witness. From asleep to awake in an instant, ready for whoever challenges her. It’s even better when the milky white fades from her eyes, revealing the true beauty underneath.

 _Wow, I really am a sap for these two._ He also totally hasn’t been having forbidden thoughts about the two of them in moments where his mind lapsed. _Totally_ didn’t think of Renee and Natalie crawling up the bed like predators an-

“No!” he shouted aloud, cursing himself. He _really_ needs to go relieve some stress the old-fashioned way. Maybe he could also go out for a night on the town. Talos may be a weird planet, but in the Outlands, if you’re normal, then you’re weird. Ezra doesn’t make the rules, he just has to loosely follow them to then get away on a loophole when something goes wrong. He doesn’t particularly know how far these feelings for his squadmates got so far out of hand. The last thing he wants to do is avoid them.

A knock on the door made Ezra’s heart increase its roaring tempo. He could feel the blood rushing away from the campsite, back into his body where it needed to flow. “Who is it?” Ezra replied, still trying to keep the tone of pent-up desire out of his voice. He largely succeeded.

 _“_ It’s me, Ezra,” Renee’s voice came from the other side of the door. “I heard you shout, are you alright?”

 _Shit, she heard that?_ _Isn’t her room on the other side of the complex?_ A horrible thought came to him, _was she stalking me?_

“Ezra?”

 _Fucking idiot, respond to her! She’s going to break down the door if you don’t answer her._ Wow, Ezra’s mind is a dick to Ezra. “Y-Yeah, I’m here. I was just thinking about something.”

 _Please don’t a-_ “Thinking about what?” _Well, fuck me sideways and catch me railjacking._

“Nothing important, what’s up?” Ezra asked aloud.

Had he had something running in his room, he would not have heard Renee’s voice go down to a mere whisper, “Can I come in?”

Ezra quickly turned off the monitor, put on his cowl, and slowly opened the door. Renee was wearing the normal outfit of her scarf, black tank top, black sweats, black boots, and if Ezra had to hazard a guess, probably black underwear and bra. He shut his eyes for a brief moment, banishing the last thought to the shadow realm.

 _Say no. Say no._ “Sure.” _Fucking idiot._ Ezra is definitely going to have to be left alone for a bit. He looks over to his shut off monitor, wanting to speak to his sister. She needs to know the full story. “So, what’s up?” he asked as nonchalant as possible, turning back to face her.

Then, something odd happened, Renee broke eye contact first. Something she _never_ unless she is forced. Before Ezra could even react, she said, “This was a bad idea, I-” he didn’t hear the rest of her sentence as she left and shut his door. _What the hell just happened?_

* * *

Renee immediately went to go find Natalie because she was panicking. Yes, the Interdimensional Skirmisher was panicking because she wanted to kiss him, but she chickened out. Since they admitted they wanted Ezra as a third partner, each woman was trying to find the best way to kiss him.

Sure they could have asked him on a date, but then what would he say? Would he reject them? Would he take the chance? All these questions were making her head hurt. The voices weren’t helping.

_You should’ve kissed him._

_You missed your chance._

_You’ll never be able to kiss him._

_There’s still a chance…_

At least one of the voices was still optimistic. At that moment, Natalie rounded the corner to see her girlfriend in the hallway, pacing. “ _Doudou,_ _Qu’est-ce qui se passe?”_

Renee turned, grabbed Natalie, and raced down the hallway. She ran all the way to the women’s changing room, she checked all the spots to make sure no one was in here while she revealed something. Once Renee confirmed that there was no one in sight or in hearing vicinity, “I almost kissed Ezra!” she shouted in panic. Natalie just stared at her girlfriend, confused.

“Almost?” asked the younger woman.

“I was going to, but the way he was looking at me, it made me feel like he was… inspecting me. I wanted to ask him out, but I don’t know what his response would be,” Renee said, acting uncharacteristically… out of character. 

“Well, what if we both asked him?” Natalie said, placing a hand on Renee’s shoulder. “I mean, would Ezra really say no if we both asked him at the exact same time, _and_ if we play our cards right, we _might_ just be able to kiss him.” A small giggle escaped Natalie as she said her plan.

Renee took a deep breath, “So what would be the best time to ask him?”

“Mostly likely after the next Games when he is not expecting us to ask,” Natalie gained a smirk on her face, “or we could go ask him now, give him something to think about. Wait, _non_ , that would not work. He needs to not be distracted.”

“So, after the game?” Renee asked.

“ _Oui,_ after the game,” Natalie confirmed.

* * *

When the Darksparks pair found Ezra the next day, he was in the kitchen, chatting with Ajay. The medic was hunched over the kitchen island, palming her face. “So, whatcha cookin?”

Ezra hmmed, “What is something you haven’t had in a while that is easily acquirable on this planet?” He wanted to cook to clear his mind. His cowl was still in place, but his eyes had a certain tint to them now. His mind was trying to not think about his most recent reaction with Renee.

Ajay hummed, clicking her tongue, “Nothin really comes to mah mind at da moment. I havn’t ate much except for what ya cook and rations.”

“Then, I’ll be running to the market to find something,” Ezra said as he looked over to the fridge and freezer, then he saw it. The ground beef, which somehow exists here in the Outlands, much to the marksman’s surprise. Ezra smiled, a dimple appearing on his right cheek, “I know what we’re having, but I need to go to the market. Shouldn’t take more than an hour.”

“What’s on your mind, sweetie?” Loba said as she waltzed in, taking a seat next to Ajay.

“A: Don’t call me sweetie. B: I have a great idea for dinner tonight. C: Don’t even attempt to reach any further because if you do, then I’ll kill you,” Ezra said nonchalantly, now glaring at Loba.

What Renee and Natalie didn’t see was Loba’s hand reaching up to Ezra’s cowl, her left hand had not touched it, but it was the motion that set him off. Ajay only raised an eyebrow. She knows what his face looks like, but as her patient, she can’t reveal it. “Oh, a challenge?” she purred, “I like challenges.”

Faster than anyone could react, Ezra had grabbed his switchblade and locked Loba into a position where she couldn’t move. He placed the blade just above her carotid artery. “Do you still wish to test me, Loba?” When she made a noise of defeat, he let go, cautiously, sheathing the blade. He inspected her neck. “Good, I didn’t pierce the skin.” Turning back around, he immediately went to grab a piece of paper and a pen. He looked up for a split second to see the two ladies of his dreams and then looked back down, hiding a small blush. It wasn’t meant to show off, but Ezra was not ready to reveal his face.

Loba looked thoroughly surprised at just how fast he went from casual to ‘I’ll slit your throat and get away with it’ back to casual in a matter of fifteen seconds. “Alright, the facemask is off-limits.”

Ajay bumped her shoulder, “I coulda told ya dat.”

Ezra finished writing his list, and while there were a few items that he would have to make himself, hopefully, there would be a better place for it. Talos may not have the best climates for what he needs, but he certainly can make do. “I’ll be back in an hour to an hour and a half. If I am not back, assume I’ve been kidnapped or killed.”

Natalie’s eyes widened. Still off to the side, “How can he joke about that?” The problem is, people who have grievances with the Syndicate have tried to kidnap some of the Legends before. Let’s just say that when they were identified, they mysteriously disappeared or committed suicide.

“He grew up with death all around him, most likely,” Renee commented, unfazed by his declaration. She was going to follow him no matter what, not because of her previous panic of wanting to kiss him no. She was going to protect her squadmate. It makes sense to Renee. Totally not going to stalk him to make sure he’s safe.

Natalie recognized the glint in her eyes, “No, you can’t follow him. I know what that entails.”

“Nat…” Renee said with a dejected voice.

“You know, you could ask to come along,” Ezra said as he passed them. “If you want to come along, then be ready in five minutes. Bring a jacket.”

Both ladies calmly walked away to change their clothes and get ready. Ajay commented, outside of Ezra’s hearing, “Tellin dem what to do? Oh, ya don’t know the hold ya have on dem.”

True to his word, five minutes later, he was leaving and the two of them were walking calmly behind them. “Stay with me, and do not comment on what you see.”

 _“Pourquoi?”_ Natalie asked.

“You know my last name, surely you’ve heard of it throughout the Frontier,” Ezra said matter-of-factly.

“Wait…” Natalie said looking at Ezra. “You’re related to that…”

“Indeed, but I never wanted much to do with it, but people do respect the name, especially when I own this,” Ezra pulled out a small badge and pin, the pin was his family seal, while the badge identified him as one of the high ranking members. He’s not exactly proud of it, judgin by his tone.

Taking the pin, and putting it on his collar, while putting the badge on his side, he walked into the market, throwing his shades on. Ezra muses that he would rather be gawked at than spoken too. He literally only came here to shop, but on Talos, people might be stingy.

The market was about as grand as one would expect, stalls everywhere, people bustling about, trades being made, and warm welcomes all around. Ezra walked in with no care, only to shop since he was the one who had to make dinner. Renee and Natalie, wearing different outfits to obscure their faces, followed behind him. While a few eyes landed on Ezra, the crowd did not part for him.

Good, he didn’t want them to.

Ezra went up to a farmer’s stand, “Hello.”

The elderly woman eyed Ezra, eyes falling on the pin, then to the badge. The old woman smiled wide, “My dear, how are you?”

Ezra beamed, recognition flashing in his eyes, “Hello, Great Gram. Nice to see you.” Natalie looked from Ezra to the old lady, not seeing any resemblance, but there was one key distinction that caught her eye, well, _eyes_. There was a subtle color difference in her eyes, in the right one. Ezra’s was in his left eye.

Renee’s eyebrows disappeared in her hair but made no comment.

“What are you doing out here, sonny?” she asked.

“Shopping for food, since people are indecisive in what they want to eat. I love to cook, and they wanted to tag along.” He looked over his shoulder, “Plus, they can be stubborn when they want to be.

“Hey…” they said in unison.

Ezra turned back around and did not notice the blushes rising on their cheeks, but the woman did. She already knew more than her great-grandson did, and oh how he managed to catch these two fine women.

The old woman laughed, “Ah, I remember when your Great-Grandfather cooked, always made a mess. Thankfully, my son managed to learn, and by the sounds of it, so did you.”

“I’m making something that I haven’t made in a while, the last time I had them was… a long time ago,” Ezra admitted, purposefully vague.

The old woman caught on and nodded, it wasn’t something she could forget either, “I see, so how are you doing in those games of yours. I must admit, you’ve done well for yourself.” Renee’s eyes went white as the woman looked at her. The skirmisher had to refrain from tensing and backing up. The woman was a danger, but how? She’s so old, but appearances can be deceiving.

A wry chuckle, “I know, but I still have plenty to learn, isn’t that right?”

“You never stop learning,” the old woman smiled. “So, here is a list of what you need, sonny, and be on your way.” the two Legends behind him slowly backed away. As soon as they were out of hearing range.

“You heard what happened to Eliza?” Ezra asked seriously.

She nodded, “Aye, and I know what you’re thinkin', boy.” Ezra’s eyes and face hardened, almost swearing aloud. “I know she’s safe and closer than you think.”

This caught Ezra’s attention, “I see, thanks, Gram. Also, tell those who dared committed this, that they are going to pay. You were always the greatest informant that my family has, so thank you, for everything...”

Great-Gram reached up and patted his cheek, making the two Legends tense and getting ready to move. Renee’s kunai is mere centimeters away from being revealed, and Natalie’s fingers sparked subtly. “Don’t thank me, it was what I wanted to do. I was a sneaky child.” She patted his cheek, “Why must you continue hiding your face?”

Ezra looked away, “You know why.”

“Well, it looks like you have two wonderful women who are dying to know what you look like. Their auras exude desire. Desire for you.”

“Pfft, you still believe in that, Gram?” Ezra inquired, looking back at the shorter woman. Still, the idea excited him, but they made no moves to include him in their relationship.

“Oh, but when I have been wrong?” Gram countered with a knowing smile.

“That time on Typhon before it got blasted,” Ezra countered back. “But I will give you that it was years before it happened.”

“Good, now, go finish your shopping and try not to be too much of a ‘player’ as this generation calls it,” Gram finished.

Ezra guffawed, “I have no intentions of doing that, trust me, _wise one_.”

“Good luck, Ezra,” Gram smiled. Oh, how that boy has grown up into a fine young man. She never did get to wring out those that hurt her precious great-grandchildren. Right as they were about to leave, she beckoned the two women over. Both of them shot a look to Ezra who waved his hand and said something inaudible to the elderly woman.

 _“Bonsoir, madame!”_ Natalie greeted.

“Hello, Ma’am,” Renee echoed.

 _“Vous avez blessé mon arrière-petit-enfant, vous allez disparaître de la face de la Frontière, compris?”_ the old woman spoke with a harshness not presented before, taking both women by surprise.

Renee responded first, voice hard, “That is not our intention.”

“Oh? Then prove it. You hesitate, _both of you_. Either take your chance, or he’ll find other people,” the woman’s cruel smile did nothing to placate them.

The mention of ‘other people’ brightened Natlaite’s baby blue irises, _“Ma chérié_ , that means…”

“Yes, it does, and it makes us asking him even better,” Renee mused, but still kept an attentive eye on the older woman.

“Good, you planned on making a move, because he would never,” the old woman scoffed, attending to her stand.

“Why?” Renee inquired.

“Because you two seem happy in his eyes, and he doesn’t want to upset that,” she said without looking for their reactions. “I’ve known the boy since he was born and what he does, this is no exception. So even if you tell him, you have to _prove_ it too.”

“We understand,” Renee said, Natalie agreeing with a head nod.

“Now, don’t keep him waiting.”

* * *

Once they made it back to the compound with five bags in hand, Ezra asked, “What did she say?”

“Nothing,” Renee immediately said.

Ezra set the bags on the counter, taking the pin and badge off, “Lie to me again, and we’ll really test how easily you can set me off. However, I’ll let it slide, _this_ time.”

“Well, I thought it was nice you ran into some family,” Natalie commented, helping Ezra sort the items.

“Technically, she never married into the family but has been around as long as I can remember, but she is my great-grandmother by all biological ties,” Ezra shrugged. He immediately got out a pan and opened up the meat, and grabbed a few packets. He still didn’t take his shades off, those have been on since they left. Not once has he removed them to even adjust them.

This gave the two some time to think, “If you need us, we’ll be in the next room.” Ezra waved a hand to acknowledge them but continued by taking out a cutting board and a sharp knife. He ran the edge along his pinky finger. The cut was clean and drew little blood. Satisfied, he cleaned the knife and wrapped his finger.

The next fifteen minutes he created something he’s only had a few times, but remembers it from memory, he even made a sauce for it. Pulling up an intercom window, he whistled, “Food’s ready, come get it or be left behind.”

Ezra grabbed what he wanted and rolled it into a condensed burrito. Elliott came in first, and took a deep breath, “You made tacos?!”

He nodded as Tae Joon came in right after, rolling his eyes at Elliot. Anita and Ajay came by after. “This seems to be fattening,” the soldier commented.

“Suck it up and enjoy it, I left the compound for you all,” Ezra scoffed. Loba came in, and trailing her was Gibraltar and _Bloth_. Renee and Natalie slipped in minutes later, just as everyone was settling down.

The gentle giant laughed boisterously, “I see you had a fun time going for it,” gesturing to his pinky.

“Had to test the sharpness of the knife for the vegetables,” Ezra said, waving his hand towards the three bowls of various vegetables. “Feel free to eat as much as you want, but I will not be making more.” He thought he was past it, but a memory was coming up, one where he used to make these in his previous relationship, but they soiled the memory. Ezra hoped that two years was long enough, but he was wrong. “Before I forget,” he turns and grabs a bottle off the kitchen island, “Try this, it’s a taco sauce.”

Tae Joon was the first to grab it, drop a generous helping of it, and passed it along. His eyes widened and he looked at Ezra. “How did you make this?”

Ezra smirked, “Trade secret, now save some for me.” The trade secret was really a family recipe that Ezra’s Grandfather had him memorize by heart, and thankfully, he had the ingredients, except one. He improvised, so if they say it's good now, then they would have to wait until he could make the actual one.

Everyone managed to get some of the taco sauce, and Ezra put at least two spoons full on his second one and got up. “See you tomorrow, everyone. The game’s in three days, yeah?”

“See you there, shooter,” Anita said with a grin.

“Count on it.”

Natalie had just gotten hers and when she bit into it, her mouth felt on fire. She put it back on her plate and fanned her mouth, _“Mon Dieu!”_

Renee chuckled at her girlfriend’s tolerance to spicy foods. When Renee bit into it, her eyes went wide, but she didn't make any sound, but merely put down her food and took a calm sip of her drink that was set for her. Maybe this is karma.

“Woah this is hot! Ezra, how hot did you make this?!” Elliott coughed.

“Well, this wasn’t made with the hottest time in the Frontier nor the Outlands. But I have a high tolerance to spicy foods,” he grinned maliciously. “But still, there are two items that I have yet to taste to judge their spiciness.” Ezra’s mind took him to the two females who had an arm around each other. Thankfully, he wasn’t looking at them.

“Oh really, what are they?” Elliott asked, smirking at him. _More like who they are, Trickster._

“You have a brain, Elliott, use it,” Ezra said before leaving the room as Dr. Nox arrived in the room. “Why don’t you ask Crypto, he’s smart.”

“Smells refreshing. I commend your skills, Leadflare,” the scientist said.

“A compliment? I’ll take it,” Ezra muttered before going back to his room.

* * *

When he arrived back at his room, he switched on the computer and decided to brush up on this new limited-time mode that the advisors came up with. Apparently, Ajay has been working hard for this. The previous mode was called ‘Always be Closing’ where the ring constantly closes over a period of time.

This one was called ‘Sanctuary’ where all healing items were removed and that only certain zones projected healing. Unique was the first word that came to mind. He then navigated towards the calling function and immediately called Eliza.

Two rings later, a person wearing a mask, one eye blue, and one eye violet. The violet was in her right eye. _“Hello, brother.”_

Ezra allowed himself to smile, “Hello sister, we have much to discuss.”

_“Like you having a massive crush on your squadmates and you aren’t doing anything about it?”_

That smile was quickly wiped away “What?!”


	10. Siblings are Great, Right?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eliza Steele arrives, and well, the title says it all...

The new Legend was floored by his sister’s statement, “You really think _I’m_ going to be the one to make a move on them when they seem happy? Not happening.” Ezra looked at his sister with inquisitive eyes. “So, what happened? Everyone has been vague with me.”

 _“It is exactly what happened, Ezra. Things went down horribly. The good news is that the people who orchestrated it believe I’m dead.”_ Her blonde hair blew in her face before tying it back with one hand.

Ezra faced palmed, “Explain to me how this is a _good_ thing?” He stood up and wandered around his room, pacing.

Eliza giggled at her baby brother, _“Well, that means by technicality, you are the leader of the Steele Empire. That, and they’re dead. Those loyal to me took care of them."_

Ezra groaned aloud, putting his face in his hands, “Fucking joy, you know how much-”

 _“-much you don’t like running the family business, I know,”_ Eliza cooed. _“So, about your squadmates…”_

“What about them?” Ezra asked looking up. Honestly, he was still more worried about his sister’s safety than his squadmates.

Eliza chuckled, _“Well, are they adorable? Hot? Downright irresistible? Do you like them?”_ This brought a flush to his face, which she noticed, _“Aww you do! That’s so cute!”_

“I swear I will hit you next time I see you, but fine. One is really adorable, speaks French, scientist, big-brained, and loves a Nessie Plush. The other is brooding, skittish at times because of her past, can be a softie at times, adept at fighting. She also- you already know who they are…” he said as his sister was laughing at him.

_“Well of course I know who they are. You fell in love with Dark Sparks!”_

“Oh, not you too!”

 _“What? I can’t blame you, they look gorgeous, and if I weren’t married, I would attempt to get with one or both for a_ ménage à trois, _”_ Eliza admitted.

Ezra wrinkled his nose in disgust, “I didn’t need to know that, sis.”

 _“Well, are you going to do something about it?”_ She asked with a raised eyebrow.

Ezra took note of Eliza’s background. Ezra recognized those places, “Wait, where _are_ you?”

Eliza looked away, _“See, about that…”_

“Yo Ezra! There’s someone here to see you!” Elliott said as he tapped on the door. “She’s kinda hot!”

 _“You have my permission to kill him, Ezra,”_ Eliza said in a teasing tone. _“Also, surprise!”_

Ezra ended the call and threw on his mask and flicked out his knife. He opened the door and Elliott stepped back when he saw the murderous intent in his multi-colored eyes. “Woah, woah, woah Ezra, take it easy!”

“My sister is married, no flirting with her. If she initiates it, then fine, but she’s off-limits. Am I understood?” Ezra growled at him, a knife under his throat.

“I understand,” the Trickster said with a firm head nod.

“I’m wondering why the hell she’s here,” Putting away the knife, he stormed down the hall, exuding a malicious aura. Revenant felt this and chuckled, knowing that this was a once in a lifetime opportunity to see what’s got the new skinsuit so riled.

It seemed that the entire compound knew something was going on. Even though dinner just ended, everyone wanted to know what got Ezra so pissed. As he stormed his way through the compound, every Legend slowly trailed behind him, far enough away to be respectful.

Once he arrived at the door, he exhaled before brandishing his knife. The door wooshed open and there stood… no one? Ezra huffed before slowly looking around, focusing. He knew what she was trying to do. “Dear sister, you have to remember you tried this on me three years ago and it didn’t work then?” Ezra moved and grabbed seemingly nothing, before forcing them over. He reached up to where he believed her head was. Grasping something he pulled it away to see the mask covered face of his sister. Her blonde hair was in an immaculate bun, but her eyes twinkled with glee.

“Is that how you treat every lady?” Eliza Steele asked, in the flesh.

Ezra, however, asked, “What the hell are you doing out this far into the Frontier?”

“Wow, what a way to say, ‘Hey big sis, long time no see? How’ve you been?’ Oh, don’t worry, I am just dandy,” she said as she twisted Ezra’s body to pin him. “Plus, I missed scraping with you, baby bro.”

Ezra huffed before turning the tables on her again, one leg across her throat, and his arms pulled one of hers across his body. Eliza tapped the floor three times and he released her, stood up, and offered to pull her up. She grabbed his hand and once she stood she just hugged him. “For all the crap I give you, I missed you.”

Eliza responded by pulling him closer. Every Legend looked on in awe, except Revenant who got ideas. “Revenant, I know a lot of kill switches on you, try anything and I will utilize them.”

No one responded to that, but Revenant narrowed his eyes. Natalie and Renee watched with a veiled tender expression as the two siblings embraced. “So which ones are your squadmates?” Renee and Natalie slowly raised their hands. She broke the hug and rushed over to all the Legends, “Hello! I’m Eliza Steele, that lovable idiot’s older sister.” Her eyes lingered on the two girls who were her brother’s squadmates. She liked them already and Ezra was right, one really is a cutie.

“He’s mentioned you once or twice, _amiga_ ,” Octavio said from the side. “Is this how you normally act?”

The siblings shared a look before shrugging, “Yeah. We’ve always been like this,” Eliza said. Ezra nodded at her statement.

“Speaking of which, you and I need to have a chat,” Ezra told his sister. He had a look in his eye that wasn’t to disagree with.

Eliza nervously giggled, “Heh, _yeah…_ ”

Ezra walked away and Eliza followed after doing her very brief meet and greet. Once they were far enough away, Ezra asked, “What the hell are you doing here? Not that I am not glad to see you, but why and how did you get here?” He brought her inside his room, where he took off his cowl and stared at her, waiting for an answer.

“Well, that incident happened a month ago, and I just made it out here. I kinda… was ignoring your calls because I wanted to surprise you.”

“Sis, you could’ve t-”

“And I kinda wanted to meet the Legends,” Eliza admitted, twiddling her thumbs.

Ezra sighed, rubbing his chin, which Eliza’s eyes drew to, noticing his scars on his chin. Her hands clenched together, knowing who caused those. “Why did you come out here? There were millions of places and safe houses you could have gone to, but you chose Talos.”

“No safe house had my baby brother. My wife is currently across the Frontier.,” Eliza admitted, taking off her own mask. 

It was the first time in a few years, but Ezra finally saw his sister smile again. He stopped what he was going to say once he noticed the tears. “Don’t tell me-“

Eliza nodded and threw herself at her brother, who caught her easy. “She’s gone, Ez. She’s gone and it’s all my fault!”

Ezra tightened his grip on her, whispering reassurances and words of encouragement. He needed to help his sister like she’s always helped him. “Have you seen Great Gram lately?” Ezra asked.

“No, not really, I just… haven’t had the chance…” her sobs lowered. Ezra reached into his back pocket and pulled out his knife and threw it at the door. He heard _shit_ and footsteps.

“Nosy pricks,” Ezra grumbled. However, this made Eliza chuckle.

“Well, wouldn’t you be curious?” Eliza asked, her voice muffled.

“I would, but I know my limits.”

“Sure, now how are you going to seduce your squadmates?”

Thankful for the change in subject, but only just, he groaned, “I’m not going to _do_ anything. I’m not going to disrupt a relationship that seems perfect to me. We went over this.”

“You don’t know that,” Eliza quipped, removing herself from her brother and wiping her eyes.

Ezra retorted with a classic sibling line, “Neither do you.”

Silence enclosed the siblings before they started laughing hysterically, like some sort of inside joke that only their weird twisted sense of humor could understand.

“Now, I have a plan on how to get your squadmates interested in you, even more than they probably are,” Eliza smirked.

Ezra knew that smirk, “I’m going to hate this aren’t I?”

She didn’t respond.

* * *

Eliza mingled with the Legends all wondering about the backstory of their newest Legend. Anita was full-on laughing, “No way! You wrangled with the local wildlife in Troy?”

Eliza giggled, “Yeah, managed to nab one of them too.”

Rolling his eyes, “But you forgot to mention that I had a nice souvenir from it too.” Ezra raised one sleeve on his shirt and showed a deep tissue scar that ran up his shoulder and the other side. “She forgot to include that I _almost_ lost my arm.”

“You lived, didn’t you?”

Deadpanning the Legends, “You see what I have to suffer with?” They all laughed.

Natalie was intrigued, “So what else did you do in your spare time?” Of course, the blonde defender wanted to know all about her crush. As did Renee, but she didn’t say anything of the sort.

Eliza made a face, "Besides running a business, my free time is limited. Ezra likes to cook, but I'm sure you've already experienced his cooking. Still jealous that you were better than me."

Ezra grinned, without missing a beat, "Sorry Gramps liked me more. You almost blew up the kitchen making a calzone, who does that?"

"I do, jackass," Eliza clapped back, not at all ashamed.

"You know, our first impression of him was that he was stone cold," Erza glared at the ex-IMC soldier. 

"You wouldn't be wrong..." Eliza said before Erza slapped her shoulder.

Loba decided to ask, "So anything scandalous you've done?" Loba wanted to see if this Legend had any embarrassing stories. No one heard Octavio's comment about poking the bear.

“Well, there was the one time in their father's house, not to mention the time you decided that you were in the mile high club, twice over at once,’ Eliza grinned, not at all ashamed that she was ousting him on it. Ezra had to remember what time she was referring to. This made the grin fall on her face, “Wait, you did do it, right?”

“Oh I did, I’m just trying to remember how _many_ times it happened,” Ezra said. “Probably around six times, but three of them were on private flights.”

“Who were they?” Eliza prompted, and Ezra wanted to slap the ever-loving shit outta his sister, but he agreed to it.

“My girlfriends, _ex-girlfriends_.” Ezra’s tone meant he was not going to be answering any questions about them. Still, the information was welcome. Renee barely knew anything except for what she learned about her past. Natalie's life story was a heart catcher. Every Legend had their fair share of embarrassing stories and such. This was no exception.

“How are you two so comfortable talking about this?” Loba asked, slightly weirded out now. Pathfinder was watching with a smile on his monitor, but he made no motion to ask questions.

“Well, consider the fact that I’m gay as fuck, and he’s got room for two, we have different experiences,” Eliza lazily pointed to herself and Ezra. The latter pointedly did not look at Renee or Natalie, whose hands were intertwined and squeezing with glee. Natalie was exhibiting more signs than Renee.

The older Steele shot the younger one a smug grin, to which he rolled his eyes and went to the kitchen. Since he believes there were still some leftovers from dinner. Within minutes, he came back with one more wrapped before throwing it to Eliza. Her eyes went wide and looked at him, “You made these again? Did you make the sauce™?”

“Course I did, I never made these without it, why are you surprised?”

“Because it was-”

“Another time,” Ezra cut his sister off. “It may not have been Tuesday, but I was in the mood since _no one_ will ask me to make something they want.”

“Wait,” Elliott said, ”you’re telling that you could have made ext-extra-ex… amazing pork chops and no one told me?”

Eliza giggled at that, “Yeah.” She looked to Ezra, who had his thinking face on before he turned to her with a twinkle in his eyes, “No. Ezra, no.”

“Oh yes, dear sister…”

“Okay, am I missing something here?” Renee asked, making this the first time she spoke since Eliza arrived. The inside joke was obvious to the siblings, but not to the Legends were ensnared by the two siblings. Ezra’s opened up more today than all of his time here.

Both siblings nodding, one begrudgingly, “I pranked her one time with spicy pork chops, made it with the spiciest ingredient I could find. She didn’t trust my cooking for five months straight, even though I assured her that I didn’t do anything to it. She even _watched me_ make them, in front of her eyes. I showed her the ingredients, and she still refused,” Ezra said, laughing halfway through his explanation.

“Wait, you managed to prank her, but you haven’t tried to prank us?” Gibraltar asked.

“If I tried to prank you,” Ezra started while still laughing, “I’d more than likely kill you.”

Eliza sniggered silently, as she knows that is sort of true. They all looked to Eliza who had a sinister smirk, which did not help his case, not that it was supposed to anyway. “So, what kind of hookups have gone on here? I wanna know the details and I traveled a long way for my baby brother, but I wanted details. I won’t be leaving without them.”

“What if we made you?” Elliott asked, and that was a mistake. Eliza smiled a cruel smile that made even the simulacrum who was eavesdropping pause.

Natalie curled into Renee, feeling the atmosphere shift. The Skirmisher looked to the newblood to see he remained unaffected, almost bored. “I know sixty-five ways to kill you with my hands, and twenty of them involve only one hand.”

“Did you learn to fight from her?” Natalie asked.

Ezra snorted, “I learned what the floor was like. They and I go way back. Like, she spared no mercy for me.”

“Then, at the front door?” Renee asked

“I’ve gotten better since then,” Ezra said simply.

“The Games are tomorrow, _Felagi Fighters_ , we should rest,” _Bloth_ said, seeing that the conversation had run its course. 

* * *

The rest of the Legends left and Ezra quickly went to his room, Eliza followed. Once the door shut, Ezra’s emotions were running high, and he turned towards his sister, “I hated that plan.”

“However, I did notice the reactions of your squadmates, so you know that they are into you?”

“Into a broken man? Really appealing,” Ezra said.

_Whack!_

Ezra’s head moved a couple of inches, and he turned to glare at his sister, waiting for an explanation. “You. Are. Not. A. Broken. Man.” Her finger pushed on his chest with each word. “You got out of there because you needed to, and I would have killed them had they not given us the slip. Those two are still the most wanted for us.”

“Eliza, I‘ve told you before, that I do not particularly care if I never date again, despite my present crushes,” Ezra sighed, knowing the argument that was about to come.

“You don’t know that? I saw their faces light up like they knew they had hope,” Eliza leaned on him, pushing him to sit on his bed.

“I just don’t want to be a disappointment…” he mumbled.

“You never were…”

* * *

_The floor was getting really old. “Come on, Ezra! You gotta learn how to defend yourself.”_

_Ezra groaned before sitting up, “I’ve told you, why would I need to defend myself if I never have to be here to deal with the consequences. I don’t want a part in the family business.”_

_“I’m still going to train you to defend yourself. Far as I care, you need this training, at the very least so you don’t-”_

_“-end up as a disappointment.”_

_Eliza leaned down to Ezra laying down on the mat, “You’re not a disappointment, and I was going to say end up dead. I don’t want my baby brother to die before me If I can avoid it. You’re going to outlive me because I’ll be damned to hell if you die. No one would be safe from the wrath of the Steele’s. I would fucking make sure that whoever killed you would die and that would be the beginning of their suffering.”_

_“Eloquently put, sis. Still, I wonder how many more secrets have been kept from me. I hope I regret the day I brought up our promise,” Ezra said, standing back up and readying himself in a fighting stance. Eliza did the same._

* * *

That was how the siblings fell asleep, Eliza was messing with Ezra’s short hair with a soft smile on her face. There have been times where she wanted nothing more than to visit him, but he fell off the grid when he disappeared. She wanted nothing more to know where her brother was, her only family left really… unless Ezra gets his ass up and asks out the two bombshells for squadmates.

So, Eliza gently laid Ezra down on the bed and exited the room. She was looking for them, she needed to give them the ‘talk’. Thankfully, with directions from Ajay, she found the one room she needed. “Knock knock, you two.” Eliza heard muffled voices on the other side of the door, and she waited patiently. Then again, she totally didn’t have an entire speech planned for those that try to woe her baby brother. No, not at all. “Listen, you two, I don’t care if you two are eating carpet and whatnot, but this is important and what I say to you is for your ears only. So, open this door before I blow its hinges off.”

There on the other side of the door—once it was open—were Renee and Natalie, with tousled hair each, flushed cheeks, and blue eyes that were so similar were looking. “Can we help you, _mon amie?_ ”

 _“Dois-je expliquer ce qui se passe si vous blessez Ezra?”_ Eliza said, with a perfect accent and all.

Renee whistled, “When you want to get a point across, you always speak in French.”

“Comes with the family, now answer, do I?” Eliza said, skipping the bullshit small talk, she was here on business, kinda.

Renee sighed, “No, you don’t. I’m pretty the vibe I was getting from your Great Grandmother was plenty enough. I don’t know how a person so old could have an aura so threatening.”

Eliza grinned, her violet eye twinkling, showing off some extent of that aura, “Trade secret.”

“The reason we haven’t asked was that he still seems hesitant. Even if we have plans to ask him after the Games,” Natalie said, wringing her fingers together, both flesh and prosthetic.

Eliza sighed, “Of course you do, and there is a reason why he never takes it off.” Even a stupid person could figure out what she meant by ‘it’. “However, that’s not my story, for now, step inside. This needs privacy.” Both women flushed, “Oh for fuck’s sake, I’m not asking to join you, and even if you did I would decline since Ezra would want to if he got his head out of his ass.” Eliza pushed both women into the room and shut the door, locking it.

“So, here’s how this is going to go…”


	11. Welcome to Sanctuary

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I apologize that this has not been uploaded as consistently as I would like. As I mentioned in a previous comment, I had papers and projects to finish, which my semester ended on Tuesday (yay!). So, now that it's over, I can dedicate more time to writing.
> 
> As of now, do not expect further updates for a couple of weeks. I need time to sort things out with this story and with GRNT.
> 
> I know it pains some of you, as does me, but this is mostly because I have real-life stuff to deal with.
> 
> Enjoy this chapter and Happy Thanksgiving for anyone in the States!

The next day Eliza had a very smug smile on her face, humming a tune that only she knew. Ezra vaguely remembered that she used to sing it to him. “So, what did you say to my squadmates?” She was making a pot of coffee for everyone, and she put in a shot of cream and a sugar cube before putting it on the counter behind her.

Eliza replied without missing a beat, “The ramifications of their actions.”

Ezra eyed his sister skeptically, “You didn’t threaten them with contingency 35, did you?” If she did, then there would be problems, not just personal ones but Syndicate level ones.

“Try contingency 27, baby brother,” Eliza said, waiting for his reaction.

A moment… then two… “Oh for fuck’s sake you did  _ not _ threaten them with  _ that _ ? Are you out of your fucking mind?” he hissed venomously towards his sister.

“Make a move, otherwise they will,” she replied, finally turning around to see Ezra without a mask, but it hung over his neck. Her eyes traced the scars that littered his face. Her hand tightened on her mug before something burned on her hand.

“If  _ this _ is how you react to them, then how the fuck am I supposed to tell them, hm?” Ezra asked as he got up, and grabbed a cloth to wipe up the spilled coffee. “How’s your hand?”

“You and I both know that I’ve dealt with worse,” Eliza rinsed her hand under cool water and dried it off.

The best part of this conversation was that no one else was up; the Games were in four hours. Eliza hasn’t slept well, and Ezra still has a sixth sibling sense when she’s close by, so naturally, he was up. Right now, he was far more worried about how Eliza was feeling about her late wife. While she seemed to have accepted it, there was something else going down inside his sister’s mind. Ezra hated being left out, but a certain part of him says he deserves it for leaving the way he did.

“How are you coping?” he asked while not looking at her. He could feel her eyes on him, narrowed and lip curled back, retort at the ready. “I am not asking because I want to be a dick-”

“You can be at times.”

“-but because I want to know how my elder sister has been dealing with life. Outside the family business, outside of everyone else’s bullshit. Tell me how  _ you _ are. I will also understand if you do not want to tell me since I basically ran out on you without a word, even if it was on ‘good terms’, Eliz.”

Ezra let the words fill the air as he went to start preparing breakfast for everyone. He even grabbed a camera just to sate the doubters who think he poisons the food. Seriously, he would have done it already, he’s had multiple opportunities. As he got the pots and pans, Eliza finally answered. “I am losing it, Ezra. My life literally got uprooted in a matter of minutes and now I lost the person closest to me. I  _ warned  _ her of the dangers she could be in and she still stayed with me.” Ezra nodded his head, knowing there was more, “Damn it, I loved her. The stubborn bi-”

“Talk about my sister-in-law like that, and I will belt you,” Ezra interrupted. “Do not speak of her like that. She knew the risks when she married you. Anyone in the Core knew what the name Steele was. She took you for you, and as soon as you get that through your head, then mount up and shut up.” After that rebuttal, Eliza stared at Ezra aghast. When she didn’t respond, he continued, “Am I wrong?”

Eliza grit her teeth, “No.”

Ezra rounded the counter and hugged her, “Take the day for yourself, head back to my room and relax. I will see you after the game.”

Eliza mumbled her agreement into his chest before the Legends crowded the kitchen area. Today was game day.

* * *

The dropship looked the same, and Ezra sat in silence. Weird for multiple reasons. One, no one tried to talk to him. Two, Renee and Natalie were buzzing with far more excitement than normal. Three, everyone seemed to be in on something that Ezra was not.

This had Eliza written all over it.

“So, what’s the game today? I’ve gotten murmurs and vague words that this game is called ‘Sanctuary’ and Ajay, you had a hand in this,” Ezra raised his voice over the excited chatter of the Legends.

“Yah, I did, the rules will be explained, ya hear meh?” the medic sassed before talking with Gibraltar once more.

Natalie was fidgeting in her seat, excited, not nervous, but that still triggered a nerve in Ezra. He waltzed his way over to the blonde and sat next to her, “You feeling alright?”

Natalie snapped out of her intense stare at nothing in particular, “ _ Oui _ , just excited for the game!”

“Well, with that attitude, we’re sure to win,” Ezra commented with a smile under his mask. His eyes crinkled, and to Natalie, she wanted to know what his smile looked like. It probably made him look even more handsome under the mask. Renee noticed this from across the room and it made their plan go that much smoother. They were going to ask him out for a date. The only thing that would make it worse would be if he said no and then their dynamic became awkward.

However, Ezra had his answer ready, but he wasn’t going to be the one to ask. He’s still sticking to his guns about not interrupting a perfectly healthy relationship. “So, do you know where we are dropping?”

Ezra shrugged, “No idea, I’m not the jumpmaster this time, Renee is.” He flicked his head over to the aforementioned Voidwalker for emphasis.

“What if I passed it to you?” Renee chose that moment to walk over and lean against the wall of the ship. She was listening because Natalie had given her an earpiece, only for each other. The only purpose was to allow each other to hear each other when Ezra was near one of them. The earpiece literally had no other purpose and did not violate the rules of the Games.

“So where are the zones, and what’s changed from the previous games?” Ezra asked, knowing he was out of his element.

“I can explain,  _ mon ami _ . So, there are no healing items, like our syringes and shield cells. The only way we can be healed is by being in one of the Sanctuary station’s range. However, if we get injured or shot, we must wait five seconds before the effect kicks in again,  _ d’accord _ ?” Natalie explained, turning to Ezra to see him staring at her with what she interpreted as a fond expression, even if it was only with his eyes.

Ezra heard her words, but Natalie looked too cute, so he paid little to no attention, but he nodded anyway. He would figure it out on the fly. “Yeah, I got it.”

“No you don’t,” Renee quipped with a knowing smirk. Thankfully, the mask covered the blush that Ezra had. If only Eliza could see him right now. He started to notice more of the little things about the two of them, their shared glances, and the way the two of them can cuddle up with ease when they are not in the Games further proves his point.

Still, there was a part of Ezra that was yearning for that kind of contact, but after his previous relationship… safe to say that he did the right thing and did not throw himself into one-night stands. However, he needed reassurance and he never got it, so while it was all he knew, he was still hesitant to even accept a compliment.

So for him to even  _ consider _ entering the dating scene again, was a huge step towards his recovery. However, that was not his present concern, even after getting caught unashamedly staring at Natalie. His present concern was preparing for the game, which was about to start in mere minutes.

Ezra then checked over his adrenaline syringes, looked to the both of them, and before he could ask the question they answered, “Yes, we still have it.”

Nodding, he took one of his out and injected half of it to get himself going. The remaining half would be if he was wounded and needed to focus on something other than blood loss. “So, where are we dropping?”

“The zones are spread out between most of the major locations across World’s Edge like Epicenter, Fragment, Train Yard, and even going as far as Lava City. However, the rules of ‘Always Be Closing’ are in effect, so the ring that is showcased will be the final ring. It ends in Dome this time, so we have a final destination,” Renee explained.

“So, where are you feeling for a dropzone? Fragment for the chaos, or Sorting Factory for some pandemonium, maybe Lava City to work on our tans?” Ezra snarked in good humor.

Nat let out a little giggle at his snarkiness, Renee scoffed, “Chaos sounds really good right about now, we all need a little bit of it in our lives.” Fragment it is.

* * *

The drop was easier this time around, Leadflare only stumbled once this time. One of the main buildings was already swarmed, so he went to one of the outer buildings in East Fragment, close to the train station, while the girls went to the main middle buildings, where they already took out a squad that wanted revenge. One even tried to tangle with Leadflare. The person who attempted to ambush him quickly learned not to mess with him. The level two body shield they had was dispatched in mere moments and then all they saw was black. Having fought years before and then Wraith winning their spar told him he needed to hone his skills.

So, when this game was over, he would ask Eliza to help him with that.  _ “How are you holding up?” _

Wraith’s voice was calm, yet icy, as it came through their shared communication channel, “I’m just peachy, what about you two?”

“We’re just fine-” a gunshot rang out over the channel with a muffled grunt, “don’t worry about us.”

“And be a poor squadmate? Fat fucking chance, Wraith,” LF said, scooping up the last of his loot, gaining two P2020s as a result with an abundance of Light ammo. Gun Runner active, he set out to find them in what has been dubbed ‘Building Alpha’ where everyone and their mother drops, even when it is not the hot zone.

He entered the Sanctuary zone’s area and he felt the immediate relief of the healing effects. Even though he was not injured, the feeling was euphoric in its own right. If this is the feeling now, would he become addicted to it? Merely a passing thought, but nonetheless an ever-present one.

The resounding bark of gunshots flooded Leadflare’s ears as he heard shouting, grunts, and various other noises as he started scaling the building with his jumpkit for assisted leverage. After reaching the third floor, he crept silently over the middle, where two squads were fighting, his and another. On the bright side, he was behind the opposing squad before he brandished his pistols. Send a coded message through his earpiece, he waited for the signal.

With a wave of a hand behind a pillar, Leadflare leaped into action, right on top of an unsuspecting Legend. After tackling them to the ground, both P2020s recoiled as fast as LF pulled the triggers. Even without Hammerpoints, they still hurt at close range, absolutely shredding a purple body shield, and then downing the person. At that moment, LF took the blunt end of a shotgun shell, shattering his shields and burning his skin. The smell of burnt flesh stung Leadflare’s nostrils.

The force of the impact rolled him off his target and into the open. Wattson and Wraith took that opportunity to rush the remaining two members and unload their weapons on them, spraying them down. Both of them were knocked down in a flash, but one still struggled. Wraith shrugged off her wounds, if she had any before looking to Wattson, “You want the honor?”

Wattson looked on in glee as she nodded before sparks started to emulate from the pylon on her back to her fingertips. The person in question started floating, most likely from electromagnetic fields being manipulated and then Wattson walked up to them in mock surprise before tapping them on the nose and a flood of electricity entered their central nervous system. In short, Wattson electrocuted them to death.

They dropped like a sack of potatoes and the healing factor consumed all of them once more, easing the pain on all of them. “Well, that was certainly  _ shocking _ , get it?” Natalie had a megawatt smile on her face that Leadflare shook his head at. She was definitely someone he needed in his life. Only she could find joy in literally electric chairing someone to death.

Maybe that should be a red flag, but in the Outlands, anything is possible. Wraith extended a hand to LF, who accepted it. “So, how was that?”

“Style points for the takedown, but did you have to unload fifteen or so bullets into that pour soul’s head?” Wraith asked, mask in place.

“Well, they were attacking you, so I had to show them not to mess with my squad,” Ezra replied easily. However, he realized how much of a flirt that sounded like but did not do anything to correct himself. Instead, he reloaded his pistols and then looted the fresh death box in front of him, gaining that level three body shield and more ammo, and then a second weapon which just so happened to be a RE-45. Much to his amusement, he found a second one in the death box of Wattson’s kill.

Ezra chose not to comment on the blushes that adorned the ladies’ faces, as he realized what a dangerous game he was playing. The problem was…

He  _ liked _ it, and some part of him  _ craved _ the thrill of the chase.

* * *

The Game proceeded as normal, the ring slowly nipping at the squad’s heels. Wattson calculated how fast it was actually moving, and even found that it was moving at a slower velocity on the northern side than the eastern side. Due to the sheer size of the ring, and the fact the ring ends at Dome, well, it didn’t take a scientist to figure it out. Yet, Leadflare listened anyway, one eye watching the surrounding area. Passing through Reactor, they encountered multiple death boxes and even more squads fighting.

Leadflare shifted his sunglasses on his face, looking to Wraith, “You have an idea in mind?”

“We either fight them and hope we come out unscathed or we sneak around and hope that no other squad attempts the same thing,” the Skirmisher said.

The defender piped in with her idea, “What about taking the jump tower,  _ chérie _ ? We can use it to get some distance from them. It will not matter as the ring will make that decision for us. According to my calculations, the ring will be right on top of us in one minute and we still have a few hundred meters to go before we reach the Dome.”

Both of the remaining squad members realized they didn’t think of that, as a jump tower was in the area and can be used to connect to three other towers. “That could work. Wraith?”

The Skirmisher took a moment to process, turning around to see the ring closing in, “Yeah, we gotta go now, but that’s a good plan.”

Leadflare leaped down first, checking the area before he hooked himself on the tower’s zipline, and started his ascension. Wraith followed and Wattson followed her. The lift was going easy until a shout was heard and a muffled grunt was heard. Wraith and Leadflare turned to see Wattson falling, clutching her side and shoulder. “Shit,” Leadflare cursed.

“We have to go!” Wraith said, shocking LF. “Chances are they will use her as bait for us.”

“You can’t be serious!” Leadflare was debating jumping down to save her.

“If you go, you die!” Wraith warned.

Leadflare looked down, seeing Wattson’s flight trail, “I’m going.” He detached from the rope, zooming straight down, injecting himself with adrenaline and prepped his ultimate. Pulling out the P2020s, he flipped in the air, activating the jets of his kit, and landed on the ground. He looked up to see Wraith flying away, good. He turned to see bullets flying at him, and to counter them, he activated his ultimate.

Targeting circled appeared in his lenses and with ease, he opened fire on the closest ones. His literal aim assist made quick work of the first person, dropping them instantly. At this moment, the ring swallowed the area whole and it felt like pins and needles were stinging every exposed inch of skin. 

The second member was a little smarter than the rest, taking slower paced shots but from the angle, they were still outside the ring as well. One of them impacted his chest and took off half of his shields. Grimacing, he looked for Wattson, seeing where her trail ended. The orange hue of his vision made it a little more difficult to see, but he noticed the blonde defender squirming in the dirt.

He quickly holstered his weapons and made a mad dash over to her, rolling her over. “Wattson, look at me!”

The baby blue irises were hazy, half-focused, and she was going to bleed out soon. Something in his chest made this much too real. His composure was slipping, and there was no safety net. “L-Leadflare?  _ Qu'est-ce que tu fais?” _

Leadflare didn’t answer, as he took a few clips from his outfit and attached them to hers. Then, he lifted her up and started carrying her, pylon and all. The jump tower was closer than he thought and attached themselves to it and their jump kits boosted them along. Checking the map, he found where Wraith was, and from her commlink, she wasn’t getting shot at. So it should be  _ relatively _ safe.

The second member, who was still shooting, missed a few dozen more crucial bullets and then Leadflare heard the kill sound off in his ears. Meaning, they stayed outside for too long.

His consciousness was fading in and out, spots appearing at the edges of his vision. “Wattson, stay with me.” The feeling in his chest tightened, something wasn’t registering in his brain.

He didn’t hear her reply as they reached the top, flying through the air, chasing the ring as it continued to close. His eyes only stayed open long enough to look at the map and angle themselves in Wraith’s general direction. Hopefully, the fail-safes in the jumpkits activate in time, otherwise, this was going to be a very gruesome wake-up call.


	12. ...is where you seek it...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I'm like the worst author ever, leaving you all on a cliffhanger for like two months... Ha. This isn't the first time I've done this. Anyway, real talk. I have not played Apex in over three months, and yet here I am writing a story on the game I have not played. Why?
> 
> Because I wanna finish my story. However, I am losing the drive to do so, but I want to at least get to a satisfying ending to where my ship happens, and right now, that isn't happening. Is this me ending the story? HELL NO. I just need time and motivation to do so. Does this mean I'm taking more time in between chapters? Yes, because I don't want to put out less than 2,500 words. Why do I set myself to a bar like that? I want the chapter to be at least a five to ten-minute read, or it takes a couple of scrolls to get to the bottom of it if you're on mobile.
> 
> This must feel kind of underwhelming, but I want this story done as much as the rest of you.
> 
> _Now I must mention this, because I don't want to put the warning for a mention, which will be reflected in the tags, so here is your CHAPTER WARNING:_
> 
> _1.) Lots of swearing, I said the fuck word a lot._
> 
> _2.) Mention of R*pe, NOT DESCRIBED IN THIS CHAPTER (Nor will it be in significant detail)._
> 
> Now that your CHAPTER WARNING is over, you can now enjoy the two-month rustiness of my work. Also, the chapter title is a reference to a certain rocket launcher to a certain franchise which got me into writing.

While the fall didn’t feel like it happened, it did, judging by the stiff movements Leadflare was doing. His mind was blurry, he remembers jumping off the jump tower to go save… Wattson! His body twitched and he heard a voice, but most of the words were inaudible, his ears were ringing, “... gods... _ucking_ idiot. How... think that... great idea?!”

Leadflare swore that he heard Wraith’s voice but he still wasn’t coming out of it. Someone or something put a hand on his chest and injected something into his heart prompting his multi-colored eyes to open and gasp.

“Oh, so now you’re awake,” the voice he heard was Wraith, staring down at him in a mixture of anger and relief. Leadflare brought a hand to his face and felt his mask was still there, which brought him some relief 

“Where’s Wattson?” Leadflare asked, attempting to sit up, but a flaring pain welled up in his abdomen. It forced him to go back to laying down, and his back rested against what felt like a wall.

“She’s alright, actually, considering the circumstances,” Wraith muttered, pointing over her shoulder to see the electric defender actually up and about.

“Leadflare? _Mon ami, est-ce que tu vas bien?”_ Wattson asked.

“I should be asking you that, Watts,” Leadflare said before falling into a daze. Both of his squadmates were at his side in an instant, concern written on both of their faces.

“Ezra!” They said in unison. Leadflare felt two hands on his shoulders, uprighting his slumped posture. When they stared into his eyes, they were dazed, far off, and in space. “Wattson, his adrenaline!” Wraith said.

“Won’t it be harmful to him in this state?” Wattson hissed in response.

“It’s either that, or we lose him, and right now, with only a few squads left it will be difficult to even survive to the next ring,” Wraith reasoned.

Wattson held conflict in her baby blue irises and Wraith held determination and resolve in hers, but her girlfriend saw a twinge of concern. So at least that was something they had in common. With a sigh, Wattson quickly delved her fingers into his pockets, being careful not to… agitate him. She quickly found one of his syringes that miraculously survived this whole time and rolled up his sleeve to reveal his arm and a prominent vein. With a small internal debate with herself, she plunged the syringe into his body and allowed its effect to run wild.

Leadflare felt the prick of the needle but was too distracted by the two very lovely ladies in front of him. “You two look pretty,” he said deliriously.

He didn’t notice the blushes on their faces, or maybe it was the heat of the room, “so what happened?” Wattson asked, one eye on their third teammate.

“You both came flying in and thankfully, the emergency protocols in our jump kits activated, saving you from receiving a fatal crash. Luckily, no other squads were in the area at that time, so I managed to carry you both back here.”

“Then why did I feel so cold after waking up, hmm?” Wattson asked with an all-knowing air. “Far as I know, and I would know, the ring does not make us feel cold.. It feels like pins and needles amplified by fifty, so please explain how we survived.

Wraith looked slightly bashful as she mumbled, “I took you both through the Void, just to get you to safety.”

Wattson then let go of her questioning aura and—in simple terms—turned back into the happy, cheerful scientist that she is known for, _“Magnifique!_ What was it like carrying us both through the Void?”

“Can we save that for later, I think he’s about to wake up,” Wraith commented as Leadflare was indeed starting to come back to his senses and he groaned,

“Why does it feel like I have a hangover after doing a single shot?” Leadflare moaned, holding his head.

“Ah, so sleeping beauty finally is lucid,” Wraith said, teasing him light-heartedly.

“So, we made it?” Leadflare asked, blinking a few times, and almost took off his mask, but realized at the very last second that he was still with company.

“Yes, we made it, _mon ami_ ,” Wattson assured him.

Leadflare exclaimed, “Fuck yes, I had zero clue that it was going to work and I’m glad it worked out. Honestly, I thought we were going to crash as soon as I passed out from the pain. So, what’s the situation?” His tone switched from playful to serious so fast that it gave the girlfriends pause.

After a moment of silence, Wraith spoke up, “Three squads left, and the ring is coming in a couple of minutes. You two don’t have weapons, and the odds are stacked against us.”

“Wouldn’t be the first time,” Leadflare replied bitterly, a memory of the past resurfacing. This specific memory was when he was trying to escape from _them_.

The Dark Sparks pair decided not to comment on that, for they feared that he would shut them out if they asked. Speaking of asking, they still planned to ask him out, but it would be better on a victory.

“As for where we are, I brought you two into a tunnel outside of Lava City, and Dome is just up the path here,” Wraith pointed towards the path in front of them. “That will lead us to the quote-unquote, final showdown where the game will end.”

“One problem,” Wattson added, “No weapons for either of us.”

Leadflare cracked his knuckles, “I don’t know about you two, but….” his brass knuckles appeared over his hands, “I feel like I need to beat a bitch, and honestly I haven’t used these like at all.” Then, he stood up carefully and when he did so without trouble he rolled his shoulders, “Did you put my adrenaline into my bloodstream?”

 _“Ouais,_ ” Wattson said, eyeing him in a critical manner. “How are you feeling?”

“Energized,” Leadflare said. “Thankfully that stuff works, otherwise, I’d be in that dazed state for a while. Did I say anything stupid?”

Both girls shook their heads casually, or at least, attempted to, but the blushes on their faces betrayed their meaning. Leadflare chose not to comment on that for now. He still felt like something was still off about them. “No, just babbled on about random musings.”

Something told him that he should pursue, but a shot from the left took Leadflare by surprise, having knocked him clean off his feet. The two ladies immediately turned to see the last two teams entering the cave. Wraith took up cover against the wall, out of sight, with Wattson already preparing fences. The Voidwalker peeked around the corner and saw Caustic and his team pushing against the other team, leaving his gas traps in his wake, so even if they pushed past them, they would still hit the gas.

One of the opponents caught a DMR round to the chest, knocking them down, and killing them. Leadflare swiftly closed the gap, having recovered rather quickly, and surprised the elder scientist. He landed a right cross on the Doctor’s mask, pushing him back into his own gas. The visor on Caustic’s face did not crack, but it shifted. “Another insect to add to the pile. Leadflare, bring it on. I will observe your death with satisfaction,” the trapper said.

Wraith and Wattson elected to dispatch the other two of Caustic’s squad. The Voidwalker phased into the Void, past all of Caustic’s traps, and emerged on the other side, weapon drawn. Much to their surprise, there was no one else, but who fired the DMR? Wattson checked a status window, available to all Legends, and saw that it was only the four of them alive. So, did Caustic fire a DMR then discard it? Was there another person who wasn’t a legend still alive?

Wattson stayed behind and put fences up, blocking them all in, which could be turned, but her squadmates could pass through the fences with ease. Quickly checking her surroundings, she reached over to a supply crate and found a P2020, which isn’t ideal, but a weapon is better than nothing. Since their landing, they have not had their weapons, having to leave them behind, or at least, that’s what Wattson remembers.

Caustic at this point, had abandoned his weapons and grappling towards Leadflare to put him in a chokehold and then gas him. Some of the other Legends had been subjected to this fate and Caustic had to make sure he gathered everyone’s reactions. The trapper then surprised the newcomer with a swift feint that made Leadflare overextend by just a mere margin.

The taller man then landed a strong punch straight to Leadflare’s gut, knocking the wind out of him. Leadflare felt like someone just made him cough up a lung and keel over. Caustic leaned down with a sneer, his face concealed by the mask, “You are by far one of the more… _interesting_ subjects that I’ve come across. This will be a pleasant result.” The trapper reached for the gas grenade on his chest before slowly unsealing the top, allowing the first few streams of misty gas to escape the canister.

Caustic gripped Leadflare’s throat and hoisted him up. Leadflare’s eyes bulged at the lack of air now entering his body. On a positive note, he wasn’t struggling in his grasp, almost as if he accepted his fate. The moment that the two females tried to double back and push forward, Caustic pressed a trigger, and more of his gas traps exploded, almost covering the area, save for the area that he himself and Leadflare were in. Somehow, his own mask was still in place. Caustic could rip it off in mere seconds, but chooses not to.

“A-Are y-you _really_ g-going to,” Caustic’s hand squeezed tighter around Leadflare’s throat, making spots start to appear at the edge of his vision, “d-drag this out?” he wheezed.

“Oh, I most certainly will, just to watch you suffer,” Caustic sneered, “and as an added bonus, your squadmates, who are so hopelessly in love you with get to watch.” Something in Leadflare— _Ezra’s_ — heart jumped at an outside admittance, despite his current situation. “Truthfully, it is beyond me how Ms. Paquette has fallen for you, and as for the disgraced scientist, that’s just the scum of the earth coming together to manifest something that will shun humanity.”

During Caustic’s monologue, Leadflare’s free hand went to a syringe of his adrenaline, and to an older gentleman—no, to this piece of shit—it _will_ fuck with his vitals. In one swift motion, he jammed the syringe in the exposed flesh of Caustic’s neck, pressing down on the plunger. Caustic dropped Leadflare in surprise and ripped the syringe out of his neck. “Can’t wait to see the after-effects.”

Wraith and Wattson were forced to watch this interaction from the other side of the gas cloud, and they heard his words, proclaiming their love to him, in the middle of a live Apex Game. That was going to add fuel to the fire that was already burning underneath the two of them already. Through the smoke, they saw him drop and Wraith was about to charge in, _“Attendez, mon amie,”_ Wattson said as Caustic started to spasm before falling to the ground.

They heard Leadflare from the other side, “My adrenaline can be lethal if injected in the wrong place. Lethal in the sense of raising blood pressure and making one unconscious, but not to _actually_ killing someone.” His voice was grave, courtesy of the man on the floor, struggling to breathe. “But holy shit man, news flash, I’m not worthy of love. Not after _them_ , no one wants sloppy seconds,” Leadflare self-deprecated.

The two girls shared a look before Wraith turned on instinct and punched the next person who was coming at them. This was some cannon fodder who immediately was cut down and thrown into a Void portal, leaving a death box behind. So there was that fifth person, honestly not even a challenge to Wraith.

They heard the sound of four shots and a _ping_ of a death box, and then a PA announcement. Leadflare fell to his knees and just took a deep breath. He didn’t react when he killed Caustic, he didn’t react when he felt his squadmates’ hands on his shoulders, basically dragging him to the ship. He didn’t react when they arrived back at the compound on Talos.

Right now, Leadflare was a husk. Wraith and Wattson couldn’t help but worry for him. The blonde defender wanted to speak up, but the raven-haired Voidwalker stopped her. This was going to have to be a job for the elder sibling.

* * *

Ezra entered the compound and was being a better robot than Pathfinder, who congratulated him on the victory but Ezra didn’t respond. Most of the Legends congratulated the trio altogether. It was even worse when the interviews came. Ezra threw on his sunglasses again and managed to get his hands on a jacket that covered most of his head and torso. Right now, he’d rather not be here. He wanted to be away from here. Not from the Apex Games, he was actually enjoying being apart of them.

He couldn’t even get to Eliza, as she wasn’t allowed to be in the room with him. So, anytime he would be asked a question, he would simply stare right at them until they moved on. Natalie and Renee, however, answered questions in monotone, a stark contrast for the blonde, but not for the Skirmisher. No one bothered to look Ezra’s way as he solidified what he thought of it.

Just as the interview was about to end, one reporter asked, “This one is for Leadflare, what did Caustic say to you, and what did you reply? The cameras were filled and blocked because of the gas.”

Ezra tensed in his seat and glared maliciously through his glasses. Then, he cast a side glance at his squadmates. They were in love with him? Was Caustic just rattling his chain? There was no way, sure he was crushing on them, but the idea of dating still scared him. Sure, he _thinks_ he’s ready, but he won’t know until he takes that leap. Psh, he has a Flyer’s chance in a Titan’s grip with them. He snarled, “No comment.” Then, he stood up and stormed back inside, absolutely done with all of this.

Renee knew that feeling all too well, having done this exact same thing a while back. Natalie wanted to go after him, but in her right mind, stayed put. The post-show ended soon after.

* * *

“Did you really have to go and do that?” Eliza asked seriously.

“How about shut the fuck up and let me brood?” Ezra snarked back. Just because she was here doesn’t mean he wanted her to talk. He wanted to be in the presence of his family.

Eliza sat next to him, “So what did the mad scientist say to you, and what did you say back?” Ezra opened his mouth to retort, but she continued, “Don’t give me the same shit you did those reporters. Give it to me straight, what the hell did you say?”

So, he explained, not leaving a single detail out, having known she would find out anyway. “Then, he said that they love me, made fun of Nat saying how it was beyond her.”

“Well, I could have him killed,” Eliza contemplated.

Ezra scoffed, “Probably be a good thing, he just infuriates me.”

Eliza had most of the context now, but she could just feel that something was still missing, “What did you reply with?” Ezra froze and Eliza internally smirked, _he thought he could get one over me_. This was going to end badly for the younger Steele sibling.

“I told him that I wasn’t worthy of love and that no one wanted sloppy seconds,” Ezra whispered before crossing the room out of fear of his sister’s rage.

The look he received made him feel like he was a teenager again, getting scolded, except this look was _far_ darker than before, “Repeat that again. You said _what_ about yourself?”

Ezra stayed silent, which was a stupid thing to do when Eliza could be… testy when she’s not getting an answer.

As a result, she flicked out her switchblade and charged her younger brother. In response, Ezra had his blade out and the two siblings engaged in a silent knife fight. They constantly threw things, glared, slashed, parried, and even got cuts on their arms, all while staying silent. No one heard this altercation, no one suspected anything.

That was until the entire compound heard, “You fucking said _that?!_ How fucking dumb are you? How could you think of yourself like that?”

Back into the room, Eliza had Ezra pinned to the floor, a fresh cut still leaking on his cheek, and her knife to his throat. “Why would you say that about yourself?”

“Because it’s true.”

“Bullshit! You know it is and so do I!” Eliza screamed.

Ezra glared at his sibling, trying to convince her otherwise. When she glared right back, he knew he had to say it, “You don’t even know the truth of what happened.”

That gave Eliza pause, before tightening her grip on her knife, the blade just barely nicking his skin, a small line of crimson forming. “What does that mean?”

“I never wanted to tell you this, nor did I ever think it would ever come to this,” Ezra said, implying the current situation they were in. “You know how I said how I broke up with them because we disagreed on some things, not to mention the argument we got in?”

Eliza remembers this story vividly, having pried it out of him the last time she saw him before he disappeared. “Yeah,” she said slowly, “What does that have anything to do with it?”

“That wasn’t the truth,” Ezra admitted.

Eliza’s eyes went wide, her mouth agape, “You lied to me about it? What happened?”

“The truth is… it wasn’t an argument that made me leave them. It was their actions,” Ezra looked so ashamed, feelings from two years ago now creeping up on him, threatening the dam in place.

“Tell me… please,” Eliza said, frightened at what he was about to say. She has a hunch and she’s praying to every deity under the suns that she’s wrong.

Ezra swallowed, “Th-They raped me… consistently for weeks prior to me leaving them.”

Not a single person was safe now as Eliza screeched, making Ezra flinch, _“They fucking WHAT?!”_


	13. One After the Other

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so things get spicy and all that. Eliza is a multitude of things in this chapter. A protective sister, a complete bitch, and underneath it all, a matchmaker.
> 
> YOU CAN SKIP THE ITALICIZED SECTION IF YOU ARE UNCOMFORTABLE WITH THE CONTENT. IT IS A FLASHBACK, BUT IT CONTAINS EZRA'S PAST... EXPERIENCES... WITH HIS ABUSIVE EXES.
> 
> On a serious note, if you know anyone in an abusive relationship, get them help. I am only putting the US Domestic Abuse hotline number here in case. This is not a laughing matter.
> 
> (US number. 1/800/799/7233)

Eliza was fucking fuming right now. Someone defiled her baby brother and she was going to fucking castrate them. She was going to do unspeakable things to them, torture which would put the ancient Geneva Conventions to shame, and oh there would be some high-quality black market dealing. Maybe sell them as whores to anyone willing…. That thought excited Eliza more than she cared to admit.

“I see that look in your eye,” Ezra said softly from the floor.

Eliza finally looked down again and pulled away her knife before burying her head on his shoulder. “Is that where you got your scars?”

Ezra nodded, “Yeah, but I’m going to have to be the bearer of bad news. You won’t be able to kill them.”

“And why not?” Eliza said pouting.

Ezra sighed, “They are kinda already dead. I might have had something to do with it.”

Eliza looked down at her brother in concern, “Please don’t tell me you’ve tainted yourself. You never wanted to deal with that side of the life we live.”

The younger Steele sibling did not reply. Except for saying, “Can you get off me?” Eliza did so without complaint. “Could you leave?” Eliza was about to complain but when she saw the tears, she never felt so conflicted.

“Could you at least let me know when you need me? I hate to leave you like this,” Eliza said but underneath the words, she was pleading with him to let her stay. To hold him like she did when they were kids. Sometimes, you need someone to hold you, just to keep away the bad dreams and trauma.

“No promises, sis,” Ezra said before falling onto his cot and closed his eyes. The nightmares were going to ravage him tonight, without mercy…  _ as they did for weeks _ . Ezra never felt so powerless over that time.

Eliza left the room with her head hung low and one of Ezra’s extra masks, which was actually one of hers and that made her crack a smile through the newly formed tears.

* * *

Once Eliza arrived in the common room, it was silent. Everyone was relaxing in the room. Pathfinder was in rest mode. Gibraltar and Anita were playing a game of chess.  _ Bloth _ was sharpening knives. Crypto was on his drone, probably hacking into something or looking up someone for future blackmailing. Ajay was doing maintenance on D.O.C. Renee was actually not doing anything with weapons and instead laying in Natalie’s lap. The latter was reading a book with one hand—her prosthetic—while the other hand was in Renee’s hair.

As for the rest of the Legends, they were scattered about. The last they heard of Octavio… he was running or playing a video game. Natalie peered over the top of her book before seeing a look in her eyes. It may have something to do with how she just yelled. “Why’d you stop?” Natalie heard Reene murmur.

“You aren’t worried about either of them?” Natalie whispered.

“Course I am, but that seems like it’s Ezra’s past and that’s something we have no right in meddling with,” Renee said as her eyes turned pearly white.

“You got that fucking right,” a voice said from behind the pair. The duo turned/looked up to see Eliza with a mask on, covering her lower face, but her eyes were in slits. Her stance showed that she had dominance in the room. “Get up.”

_ “Quoi? _ ” Natalie asked.

“I’m not repeating myself, fucking move, or I will make you move,” Eliza snarled, catching the attention of everyone present.

Renee looked skeptical, “I happen to be one of the most dangerous people in the room. Sure you may be Legends here, but outside this, what are you?” Eliza looked to Crypto, “You, does Alpha Tango Delta 45 mean anything to you?”

The hacker looked pensive for a moment, before recognition flashed in his eyes, “So that was you, wasn’t it? Sure, it means something, but what’s the passcode?”

“Stand united in the face of uncertainty,” Eliza replied confidently.

Crypto sighed in dejection, “Well, that certainly is the answer. I will need to ask you questions later.”

“Everyone out,” Eliza put a hand on Natalie’s shoulder gently, “Not you two.” So, the Legends moved out of the room. Elliott even commented that Eliza was really scary when she was angry. When their privacy was all but assured, thanks to Crypto locking the doors, part of the deal that was made years ago. Eliza immediately turned and punched the closest object to her, which the object was actually the wall, creating a hole in it. Something most likely broke and her hand was now bleeding, but she didn’t show an ounce of pain. In fact, it all seemed normal to her, “So, I just found out something that Ezra lied to me about, and I thought I would do the sisterly thing and let you know that if you  _ ever _ make him feel that specific way again… I don’t care who, what, or where you are. I will bring the entirety of the Steele Empire on you both.”

Renee faced Eliza, “Pray tell, why?”

Eliza growled, but at herself, “You know how Ezra is polyamorous, which I goaded him into slyly admitting?” There were some head nods from the Dark Sparks peanut gallery. “His previous  _ relationship _ , if it can be  _ fucking _ called that, did not end as it should have. So I am giving you this  _ final _ warning. You break this, you know what happens.”

Natalie said, “There is something you are not telling us.”

Renee agreed with her girlfriend, but added in, “What could have possibly happened, did someone drug him and had sex with him?” Eliza’s eyes flashed dangerously, the violet iris twinkling just a little bit. Her fists were clenched, and again, showed no signs of pain. When they got no response, Renee’s jaw slacked, “Oh no.”

_ “Cheriée?” _

“Please tell me something didn’t happen with him,” Renne borderline pleaded.

Eliza nodded, “Something did happen and he  _ lied _ to me about it. I thought he could trust me… Just… just promise me something you two.”

“If it concerns him, then we will most likely do what we can to help,” Natalie said, gently encompassing Eliza’s free hand in both of her own.

Eliza looked into Natalie’s eyes and saw the resolve in them, “Oh, you two are going to make great sisters-in-law.” Eliza grabbed Natalie and held her in a gentle hug. “I will be staying with him because whether he likes it or not, he needs some reassurance. If he acts cold and distant from you, or tends to avoid you, please don’t take it personally. That’s his way of coping.”

“Should you even be telling us this?” Renee asked. Clarifying, “I mean, we’re grateful, but won’t he be upset that you’ve sort of told us this?”

“If he does, then he can fight me on it. I mean, we had a knife fight in his room, to which I’m sure you heard the shouting,” Eliza said, getting bewildered looks from Renee and a side look from Natalie, who was still hugging the Steele sibling.

“Now what?”

Eliza huffed, disconnecting the hug, “Now… I help my brother land two hot-ass bombshells he calls squadmates, and you two help him when the time comes. I know you wanted to ask him after the Game, but given what just happened… not a good time. Just look after him as well out there, okay?”

“You didn’t even have to ask,” Renee said.

“What about the other Legends? What will they say?” Natalie mumbled, recovering from the gracious compliment from the sister.

“Fuck them, if they find out, I’ll kill them myself and I won’t be pleasant about it either. I’ll make it hurt,” Eliza declared. It should be concerning, but she did just threaten them as well.

“So we have a plan, and now we got to tread lightly,” Renee said.

Eliza had moved to the other side of the room, opening the door, “That’s an understatement.”

* * *

* * *

_ He was chained down, having no choice in the matter. He watched with tears in his eyes as one of them got off of him and the other replaced them. He should’ve seen it coming, he should’ve left when he had the chance, but nooooo…. He was thinking with his dick again and look where it got him. _

_ “Are you sure you didn’t break him? He looks out of it, dearest sister,” one twin had said. He then felt a slight nip of his ear lobe, a slight scratch on his chest. Shivers racked his body _

_ “Not at all, I mean, he’s still at attention and we would be  _ horrible _ girlfriends if we didn’t… appease him, now would we?” the second one asked with a seductive purr. _

_ All he felt was pain, all he heard was the clanking of chains, and all he wanted was to die right there. No one should have to go through this. It started off easy and then snowballed to this. The number of times they brought him so close to the edge to then full-stopped was too many to count. It was taking a toll on him physically and mentally. There were times that they just left him strapped to a machine and let it do the job for them. He’s already passed out once from overstimulation, and he was going to pass out again. _

_ They even perfected the art of getting themselves off whilst not letting him get the same feeling. His wrists and ankles were red, rashed, and blemished. That was almost two weeks ago, or was it two months; he didn’t know. He wanted it to stop and he prayed to whoever would listen to save him. Much to his disappointment, no one was coming and no one was ever going to save him. _

_ “Should we let him have this one?” the first asked while her sharp nails scratched his chest just enough to draw blood. _

_ The second one clawed at his face, leaving deep marks that would scar when they healed. “I think after all of this time, our little toy deserves it.” So, that’s what they did, they overstimulated him, allowing him to fall over that edge over and over again. He felt like once he fell, only the ocean was left to embrace him in its cold vice grip. _

_ “Aww, you thought it was over?” One of them said. _

_ “There’s one thing that you have to learn…” the second started. _

_ “It’s  _ never _ over, Ezra.” _

* * *

* * *

Ezra gasped as he shot up from his bed, panting, sweating, and shivering all at once. “F-Fuck…” he stammered.

“Why did you never tell me?” a voice asked that was none other than his sister’s. “I would have come to help you, had I known. I…” she paused, “I never wanted anyone I know to go through that, so why?”

Ezra replied, his voice soft, but the tone carried a certain weight to it, “I wanted to prove that I never needed help.”

“That’s a lie,” Eliza said, getting up from the desk chair she was in. “I will always want to help my family, my little brother whom I’ve watched grow into a man, one who has enough love in his heart for two.”

“Why do you put up with me?” Ezra’s question caught her off guard. “Why do you care about me so much? I’ve proven to you time and time again that I’m useless. So, Eliza, answer me… why do you care so much?”

“I-I just want to make sure you live a good life,” Eliza said.

With the same dead tone of voice, “And there’s that. Here you are worried about me when I should be worried about you. You lost your wife, your literal soulmate, and you’re acting all fine, but I should be the one comforting you. Not the other way around.”

“Will you just shut up for a minute?” Eliza asked softly. Ezra didn’t reply but awaited his sister’s words. “I made peace with that. I know it seemed to be so soon, but wasn’t it my very own baby brother who gave me a lesson in letting go and cherishing the memories of what I had?”

“I guess,” Ezra mumbled.

Eliza tsked, “Don’t be like that. Now, go back to sleep, I’ll be here in the morning,” she hugged him and kissed his head, just like she used to do when he was seven.

“Thanks, big sis,” Ezra said before gently lowering his head back down to his bed.

“Oh and about your squadmates? I have a plan, but I’m going to need you to follow along.”

“I’m not going to like it, aren’t I?”

As for the aforementioned squadmates, they were outside, having heard a good chunk of the conversation. When Natalie heard Ezra scream, that prompted her to wake Renee and go check on him, but when they got there, the conversation was halfway over. “I’m worried about him,  _ Doudou _ . That, and I have to make adjustments to the Ring, but my mind is so split and this has only happened one other time and-”

“-and it had to do with me, I know, but you made it through it, and I have faith that you will make it through this too. We just need time.”

“I just don’t approve of this plan that she came up with,” Natalie grumbled.

Renee chuckled lightly, pulling Natalie along, “Nat, if she weren’t here, then we would be stuck in an endless loop, and I know from personal experience that they are not fun.”

* * *

The next time that the Legends saw Ezra again was during the Games and even then, it was like that he had an inversion to his personality. Now, he was the stone-cold marksman that they thought he was going to be. He was still open to communication, but it was a one-way street, as counter-intuitive as it sounds. It’s been a month since then and out of those four Games, the three of them have won two of them, but only just. The losses were only down to the final three and poor positioning 

What was really the knife to the throat was that every time they tried to talk to him, he’d flinched and had this wild look in his eye that made him akin to a lion before a hunt. That was what hurt them the most. The fact that he’s too scared to converse with them. It only seemed to get worse as the days passed. Ezra had a nightmare every single night, and it showed. Bags appeared under his eyes, and he was struggling to stay awake. Eliza was fuming as well, but there was nothing she could do. It angered her beyond belief.

That was when she decided to take action, “Ezra, come here.”

“Fuck off,” he said in monotone.

“Who the fuck killed you today? You’re not my brother,” Eliza said, goading him on,

Ezra stretched, “I’m merely possessing this body until he is no longer useful.”

“Oh, then he won’t mind if I told some secrets about him, would he?” Eliza raised an eyebrow as their eyes met. It may have been a joke, but Eliza was not all talk. She’ll follow through, come hell or high water.

“What do you want, sis?” Ezra asked, all traces of joking gone off of his face.

“Are you ever going to let me help you?” Eliza questioned. “I want to help you, but you have to let me.”

“Have you ever thought that I am beyond helping?” Ezra questioned seriously, his eyes narrowed. He still won’t take off his mask. Eliza will have to change that.

“I’ve said it once, and I will say it again: Bull to the Shit.”

Ezra signed, scratching his chin under the mask, “I’ve accepted that, but the trauma will shadow me till the day I die. You wonder why I haven’t done anything about it yet?” Eliza waited patiently for this. “Because I’d know what  _ it _ would do to you, and I couldn’t do it. I’d never do that to you.”

“Then how about doing something else, like taking off that damn thing? You hiding them doesn’t mean anything, you haven’t faced those fears. You think you have, but you really haven’t,” Eliza sassed.  _ Hook. _

“Where the hell did this come from. If I recall correctly,  _ you _ were the one that suggested that I wear these to hide,” Ezra said, his eyes sharpened.

“Well, I must have been one pussy bitch back then, because it is time to man the fuck up and face the music,” she continued.  _ Line. _

“What the fuck do you want from me? Am I not allowed to be terrified of something that physically, emotionally, and mentally scarred me? Aren’t I allowed to set my own boundaries?”

Eliza hated saying this because honestly, the opposite was true but… “Only  _ real _ men can set boundaries.”  _ Sinker. _

Ezra ripped off the mask as he glared angrily at his sister, advancing towards her with dripping malicious intent, “Where the fuck do you get off for this? Would you rather me dead, because you and I both know that can change and you wouldn’t be able to stop me. Remember that we both know where all the vital veins are. We  _ know _ how to end someone’s life with a simple flick of the wrist. So, you think you can fucking lecture me on this, on how I feel?” He was standing over his sister and for the first time in a while, Eliza wonders if she pushed too far. “I have been living nightmares over and over about what they fucking did to me. I shelter myself from getting too close because I don’t want that hope. I don’t want to see it. They can be hopeful all they want, but it will  _ never _ happen. I’d only be the disappointment that I know I am.” His tone dropped as he seethed, “So tell me, dearest sister, how the fuck do you want me to ‘face the music’, hm?”

“E-Ezra?” Eliza’s voice quivered.

Ezra seemed to realize that he was crushing Eliza’s wrists. He tore himself away, “This is what I am talking about… I told you… disappointment.”

“Not to us,” a soft voice came from behind over Eliza’s shoulders. Never has Eliza seen Ezra have this much fear in his gaze.

There at the door stood Natalie and Renee, both with soft smiles on their faces. “So this is what you look like. You don’t know how long we’ve been waiting to see your face.”


	14. Crux

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, after much internal debate, and finally reaching the plot point I wanted to get to, Newly Recruited only has one thing left. An Epilogue (aka next chapter not this one). I know some of you will be disappointed because I know there are some things that I did not cover, but I have lost most, if not all, interest in writing this.
> 
> I haven't played Apex for a while, and while the new season is out, I can't find myself playing. So, the next chapter is indeed the Epilogue, but it will be relatively short, no doubt the shortest chapter I write for this.
> 
> Still, on a more positive note, I got to have my Dark Sparks, and a character insert, people seemed happy. Even better, two chapters in two days, despite the upload date. These were made pretty late at night. So I appreciate everyone who reads this, will read this, and then probably forget it existed.
> 
> This was fun, while it lasted. Enjoy.

“Why are you in here?” Ezra asked with genuine terror in his voice. “Why have you wanted to see my face?” He was peering over Eliza’s shoulder, even though she was shorter than him.

Renee answered smoothly, “Because, in order to get to know someone, you gotta know who you’re dealing with. Sure, we met Leadflare in the Games, and we’ve met Ezra with the mask, but we _haven’t_ met the Ezra without the mask.”

“That, and we have a question for you, Ezra,” Natalie beamed. They both stepped inside the room and Ezra tensed.

Eliza assured him, “They don’t mean you harm, not like they did. They want to ask you something and it took an absurd amount of time to get you with a mask off, even though I admit, I may have gone a little too far.”

“Understatement, Eli. Understatement,” Ezra murmured. He felt vulnerable without a mask. He had carelessly tossed it across the room in his anger. He wanted to be upset for letting her words get under his skin, but now he must deal with the fallout.

Ezra raised his head—Eliza had stepped aside—and he finally looked at his two teammates, “What is it?”

Natalie was staring at him in wonder, and her hand reached out. Ezra flinched but didn’t move. Her hand touched his face and her hand was warm. Her thumb brushed his cheek, her fingertips tickled his chin. Her soft gaze met his hesitant one, “Handsome.”

Renee’s hand landed on his chest and she stared him down, “I don’t know why you were so hesitant to show us, but everyone has stories they would rather not share. We’re never going to ask you to share-”

“I do have a burning curiosity, but I will withhold from asking.”

“-but we want you to extend a branch to us. I actually have something to tell you. I have actually had a crush on you since you basically arrived, maybe a few days after,” Renee admitted. She was usually not so transparent about it, so this was a rare opportunity.

“When exactly?” Ezra questioned. His face softened slightly, even as Natalie continued to trace his scars.

“Probably after you found out we were eavesdropping on you in the range, no one finds out that easily,” Renee admitted.

“I always seem to find myself attracted to the mysterious ones, first Renee, then you, Ezra. When I first mentioned it, I thought Renee would be upset and jealous. However, she told me that she was starting to feel the same way. So, we have an offer for you.” Those same words made Ezra tense, a shadow crawling into his eyes, his flight instincts were coming in, and he was mere moments from bolting. Natalie continued on without a worry, even though she knew this was affecting him. “We want to go out with you. Me, you, and Renee.”

“You’re… asking me out? Why?” His tone sounded so defeated. “Did you not hear me? I can’t even face my own demons, much less think about being with you.”

Renee was quick to say, “You know, I haven’t recovered from my demons either, but I am coping with them because I had someone with me. We’re offering to be those people for you. All we’re asking for is a chance.”

Ezra reached up and grabbed one of their hands gently, “Why? Why me? After everything? Why _now?_ ”

“Because we’re falling,” they replied in unison.

“The one good thing out of this is that I was falling too,” Ezra said before he brought the two females close to him, tears brimming at the edges of his vision. Eliza slowly slipped out of the room, letting the natural events happen. Once she cleared the room, she jumped in excitement.

“What’s got you in a good mood?” Ajay asked, having seen Eliza’s excitement.

“If everything goes right, then I’ll have two new sisters-in-law…” she whispered. “However, if you say anything, I’ll kill you.”

“Easy there, sista,” Ajay said, her eyes going to the room where she left, and she smiled. “Bout time dey made their move.”

Inside the room, “Does that mean?” Natalie asked, her heart beating faster and faster. Renee’s heart was slowly climbing, but she could feel Ezra’s pumping like he just ran a marathon. The conversation they had a while back came back to her. She smiled as her ear landed on his heart.

“I… I know I am going to mess up, but I want to do this. I want to be the third. Plus, Eliza already gathered that you were looking for someone,” Ezra said softly, his hands went to the smalls of their backs, holding tight.

Both Renee and Natalie shared a look before nodding slightly. They both stood on their tiptoes and kissed each cheek on Ezra. It was a quick peck from the Dark Sparks, but it made Ezra’s tears fall. Natalie wiped them away, “Don’t cry, _chéri_. We’re here.”

Ezra’s head rested on both of their shoulders, his hands didn’t move. Did he deserve them? After what he said, after what he has gone through? He just said that he doesn’t want that hope, but his heart disagrees. His heart is yearning for that. _The Outlands are a weird place._ “We’ll be here as long as you want us to be.”

“Can-” he swallowed the knot in his throat, “Can you two stay with me tonight?”

Both women were experiencing whiplash at the moment, but quickly nodded and kissed his cheeks again, “Of course, if it will make you feel better.” Natalie was the one who spoke, and when she did, her breath caught the shell of his ear and he shivered.

“Do you want us to lead, or do you want to?” Renee asked just as quietly.

“Funnily enough, I was going to ask if we could portal our way there?” Ezra sheepishly asked, head still on their shoulders.

“No, unfortunately, but it does seem to be late, so there is a chance that no one else is up except for Eliza,” Renee said, gently raising Ezra’s head. Her fingers traced his scars, as gently as Natalie did. She kissed his chin soon after.

“Thank you,” Ezra said after they started leading him, the women in front of him. He retrieved his mask and put it back in place, just for now. On the bright side of all this, he could stare at their assets. _But it was precisely that that brought you into your situation._ He adverted his gaze soon after his door was opened and they entered.

Ezra plopped onto the bed unceremoniously with a sigh, “I don’t bite, at least until the second date.” The tease was only a front to his nervousness. The last time he shared a bed with anyone, even platonically, was two almost three years ago now. He didn’t bother taking off his clothes, he was too tired, lazy, _and_ nervous.

He must have been exhausted because he didn’t feel or move when two other bodies laid down next to him. The two had gentle smiles on their faces. “Victory,” Natalie giggled.

“A small victory, yes. Hopefully, there are many more to come.”

* * *

Eliza crept into Ezra’s room the next morning and she was surprised as fuck at the sight. Ezra laying in the middle, arms spread out, cradling two people. One blonde and one ravenette. The two people had their respective legs intertwined with one of his, their free hands clasped together on his chest, rising and falling softly. Eliza internally fangirled at the sight, knowing that he took a leap and they caught him.

It took a lot of willpower to not scream and jump for the goddamn moon. However, it appeared that one of them was waking up, “Who are you?” the person asked, voice slurred.

“Well, good morning to you too, Renee. Welcome back to the land of the living,” Eliza giggled softly.

Renee finally rubbed her eyes, then paled, looking down to a still sleeping Ezra, the back to Eliza, “We didn’t do anything, I swear.”

“Trust me, I know you didn’t, because I don’t need to remind you what happens if you do something and he did not consent,” Eliza’s eye twinkled in the light. Her smile was malicious, all teeth.

Natalie was the next to wake up, _“Bon matin, chériée.”_ Her accent thick with sleep. Looking down to Ezra, she smiled sleepily and mumbled something against his forehead and he let out a small murmur.

“Morning, Nat,” Eliza called from the other side of the room. “You know, people will talk if you remain here, as much as I want to let you all sleep. You two need to go, as I don’t think the advisors or whatever you call the head honchos allow Legends to fraternize with each other.”

“I could get kicked out, and be alright,” Renee said, which was a half-truth.

“Oh, you would be, because I’d put you under my protection. You forget the Steele Empire is vast and hidden amongst the crowd. You’d be fine. I’d make sure of it,” Eliza proclaimed. The two women slowly got up, making Ezra roll over and bring his arms to himself, preserving the warmth he had.

“Thank you,” she whispered to them both as they left the room, Eliza following them. “You’ll thank me for this one day, Ezra. Right now, let’s focus on taking baby steps.”

* * *

Ezra woke up with a flutter in his chest and a smile on his face. When he opened his eyes though, it all changed. They weren’t with him. Was he expecting too much? Was it all a joke? He checked the time and saw it was still pretty early, but a tad bit later than when he normally wakes up.

One detail caught him by surprise though. He didn’t have a nightmare last night. It’s the first time in almost a month and a half that he was able to sleep without waking up crying. All of his nightmares were heart-aching and terror-inducing, much like yesterday’s fiasco. Still, Renee and Natalie now knew what his face looked like. Mismatched eyes, scars on his chin, and a paranoid personality. If Ajay knew, then she would be laughing at him. Hopefully, no one knows about what happened.

The door swung open and in entered Eliza wearing workout clothes. Surprisingly—a detail that Ezra missed—the Syndicate hasn’t thrown her out yet. Not that he wants her to leave, well he does, but… know what, never mind.

“Good, you got up and to answer the question, no they did not abandon you in the middle of the night. Yes, it really happened and I’m proud of you,” Eliza beamed at him.

“Eli, I-”

“I am also going to apologize for what I said yesterday. That was far out of line, and I shouldn’t have said it. However, it was also the motivator for them to confront you on their feelings. You and I both know what you were going through with the two bombshells, so I just helped them along.”

“Thanks,” he said simply before getting up and passing by her. “I’m going to see if I can make something in the kitchen, you want anything?”

Eliza smiled kindly, “Just make what makes you feel good.”

“Done.”

Sure, last night, the dynamic changed between the three of them. However, it may have been for the best. There was a point in time that he seriously considered not accepting their advances to save himself. Would it have been selfish? Probably.

Ezra slipped on a mask, only because he wasn’t ready to showcase them yet. He should’ve been upset that they saw him, but he lasted a lot longer than he thought he would’ve. All good things must come to an end to make way for greater things. Another detail that Ezra just remembered, is that the season is ending soon. Has it really been this long already? Has it really been two months? It honestly felt like it was a lot longer than that.

Upon entering the kitchen, Ezra noticed no one was there. He checked the time again. No, it was still early, guess no one is up yet. So, he started gathering ingredients for omelets. Thankfully, with an order that can be put in every week, Ezra stealthily put a few dozen eggs on the list, along with a list of spices and meats.

So, that‘s what he did for the next half hour, making breakfast for everyone who could eat and putting them in the oven on warm, just in case. He even labeled everyone's. Eliza got hers because she followed him in to watch him cook. Even after all these years, he still spins the spatula like a circus leader twirls the baton. It keeps him distracted. “You still like mild stuff, don’t you?”

“You know what I like, I’d order it from you every Sunday. Can’t believe you forgot,” Eliza teased, watching him cook like a master. “You know, if you ever leave the Games, you can open up a restaurant. You’d make a killing.”

“Something tells me that means in both mannerisms,” Ezra said as Anita came through the door. Of course, the soldier is up first. “Morning,” he said gruffly.

Anita looked at the counter, the oven, then at Ezra, “Feeling better, shooter?”

A shrug, “We’ll see.”

Elliott came in, yawning, “What’s good, all you beautiful people?” The Trickster was a little tired, having not even registered that Ezra was in the room.

“Breakfast, Elliott,” Anita said, gesturing to the counter covered in the success of Ezra’s cooking.

Never has Ezra seen Elliott’s eyes go so wide, “Hey champ! How are you?”

“I’m…” his thoughts went to last night, “better than I was.”

Ajay, Loba, and Makoa joined in moments later, and everyone got breakfast served. Even Caustic, the asshole. Others came and went, but Ezra found himself impatient. Renee and Natalie have not shown up, and some insecurities came back to him. Still, it feels like a distant memory when they were all here.

“So brotha, do you have plans to have your own restaurant?” Makoa asked. Eliza shot Ezra a smug look, told you so look.

“Nothing in my future is set in stone, but honestly, maybe. It is enticing, and I think the old man would be appreciative,” Ezra mused.

“Seriously, how delicious are these? This should be illegal!” Elliott said with his mouth full. Everyone present laughed at him, but he took it in stride.

Secretly, Renee and Natalie entered the kitchen, just watching. They see the little sparks of mirth in his eyes, and when Ezra felt the hairs on his neck stand up, he searched and that mirth expanded. No one was looking at him at the moment, but his eyes twinkled with a softness that Eliza hasn’t seen in years.

“Well, when breakfast is done, I need to get myself back into a routine. Lately, I haven’t done that, so I feel like my performance is lacking,” Ezra muttered just loud enough for Eliza to hear. He swiped his breakfast, and then passed the two women he has affections for, “I’ll eat this, then I’ll be in the training room.”

“See you then,” Renee said.

 _“S’amuser,_ Ezra.”

Once he left the room, chatter immediately broke out from the medic, “Did ya finally admit it?”

“Fuck yeah they did,” Eliza said without missing a beat.

She groaned, “Finally. Watchin’ ya tree dance ‘round each other was gettin’ a bit stale.”

Elliott, who was confused, asked, “What, something happened? Without the most beautiful one of them all?”

Makoa guffawed, “So, we finally got something new here? Ayy Natalie, Wraith, congrats.”

“Thanks, Gibby,” Natalie beamed and flushed in embarrassment. Her smile was well worth it.

Anita sipped her coffee, “Now, we gotta deal with one more thing: Relationship drama.”

Eliza grinned, “Oh, I have another plan to counter that, you’ll see.”

“It won’t involve us, will it?” Anita inquired.

“Fifty-fifty.”

“That’s not reassuring,” she retorted.

“Wasn’t supposed to be.”


	15. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just a small thing to signify the end. No other notes needed.

The following months were some of the best things that had ever happened to Ezra. With the help of his girlfriends, he was finally able to enjoy life inside the Apex Games, and out of it, when they wanted to. Needless to say, Ezra was  _ very _ impressed with their performance in…  _ extracurriculars _ . He always found himself surprised at how well they adapted to his kinks and desires. He also adapted to them as well. However, there is one thing he won’t do, but that’s for them to know.

Eliza, seemingly satisfied with her work, decided to leave and head back to the Core Planets, but not before Ezra pulled some strings. He may or may not have coerced her into coming into an Apex Game just for fun. He purposefully put her on a squad with  _ Bloth _ and Lifeline, just two of the more reliable Legends. He also may have set up Caustic to take a bullet, with love, from Eliza.

Even so, she did get a pretty cool code name from this. Damascus. Which she then promptly ruined by making a pun. At least she had the foresight to wear shades to hide who she was. However, with the Steele siblings in the same game, well, they casually fought it out in the middle of a firefight. It was a good test to see who was better. Much to their disappointment, they tied by stabbing each other in the heart. If they were twins, it would have been creepy, but they both jokingly cursed each other out, “You bitch/bastard,” as they died.

When they woke up, they were grinning and joking around.

One other thing that most everyone noticed was Ezra without his mask. Outside the arena, he wouldn’t wear them, but inside the arena, he was always wearing them.

Now, onto the relationship. The three of them share a bed, alternating who is in the middle. However, they scrapped that idea decided whoever gets their first is in the middle. When Ezra gets into the middle, he gets woken up in the best ways, and sometimes, he’s able to return the favor. Sure things were somewhat awkward at first, but as they progressed they figured out each other’s boundaries, and how they could not breach them. Everything was smoother sailing, even as the action started to pick up again.

Season 7 was beginning soon, and after the newest Legend _ s _ joined, Rampart and Horizon, they were going to Olympus. Definitely a unique place, but the Legends were up for it.

At the current moment, Ezra was working out, again. He was running around the track, thinking about how much his life has turned around in the past seven months. Got over a relationship, healed/battling his demons, landed two girlfriends, and even started a restaurant.

That’s right, Ezra owns a restaurant.

Well, it’s more of an old-fashioned diner, and like his grandfather’s place, it was modeled after it. Even in the Syndicate-controlled planets, he was able to open one up on Solace, making it the only one of its kind. The even better part of it was, no one knew Ezra was Leadflare. He would close on the days of the Apex Games. Most assumed that it was because Ezra was a fan of the Games. If only they knew the truth.

As for his sister, he keeps in close contact and she pesters him wondering when the wedding will be. Ezra assures his sister that he’s not thinking that far ahead. Even so, his restaurant got super popular because the Legends frequent it when they return to Solace. Some noticed he was close to two Legends, ironically that was Mirage and Bangalore, so he was safe. Ezra hired a staff who was surprisingly reliable. Not to mention that Ezra had Park completely model the security, so if anyone stole, they would be killed without mercy.

If it sounds like Ezra left the Games, they would be incorrect. He did not, but he managed to work out a deal with the Syndicate, much to everyone’s surprise. Only two people knew the truth: the Steele Siblings. He was to be left alone when they left for Talos or Olympus. However, if Ezra had a wild hair up his ass to participate, he would notify the advisors and they would ‘pencil’ him in, even in the middle of the game. The only caveat was, he was on his own squad. Fine by him, but he always checked to see who was still alive and he would purposefully make his way to Wattson or Wraith, pending if they were alive. A couple times, he snuck up on Wattson, but he has yet to get the drop on Wraith.

Even better, they don’t get notified that he’s arriving either, so it takes a lot of their willpower to not hug him, or kiss him, or bring him into a room not covered by the cameras and ravage him. They’d have to be quick, lest someone figures it out. So they make sure to bring a grenade and fake injuries. No one can see their shields or their gauge, so it had to look believable.

As for when Ezra is not at his restaurant, thanks to Elliott, he has a clone of himself that takes the orders and makes everything. Sometimes, he uses it to help him with the lunch rush. Each and every time, the Legends are fascinated with how he does it so effortlessly. Even still, there was more to Ezra’s story.

* * *

“I cannot believe you are doing this!” one voice shouted.

“I told you it was going to happen, eventually,” a second voice said, this one deeper than the first.

“You didn’t tell me that you proposed! I would have had a plan!” the first voice said.

“Trust me, Eliza, your plan would have been far too elaborate and I wanted it to be simple,” Ezra’s voice said as he appeared from behind the curtain, wearing an impressive suit, but this suit wasn’t a normal suit. It had weapons and other high-tech gadgets in it.

Eliza was in an equally high tech dress, as it draped down to the floor. As for their current location, well, they were on Solace, so there’s that. After Ezra had proposed, they decided to play a game. Apparently, he now had to find his finacées.

They couldn’t force Renee into a dress, so she’s in a suit, but it looks like a skirt and suit hybrid. Natalie was all for wearing a dress, wishing Ezra luck.

“Well, do you know what’s going to happen?” Eliza asked, twisting a ring on her finger. She found someone else, who has been confirmed to be trans, from a man to a woman. Ezra was proud of his sister, and his sister-in-law. Apparently, this person was someone who Eliza frequented when she and her late wife wanted a threesome. A detail that Ezra didn’t need to know, but it was out there now.

“I don’t know, but Anita was the one who approached me,” Ezra said. “She had something regarding both of my fiancées.”

Speaking of Anita, she entered the room, wearing a suit as well, “You clean up nice, shooter. You ready?” Much to the relief of Ezra, the Legends, sans Revenant and Caustic, were supportive in their relationship and their marriage.

“Sure, as soon as you tell me what’s going on.”

Well, that potential explanation was no longer needed as the wall collapsed, revealing a familiar battleground. Anita laughed, “You ready for one more round, Leadflare?” she asked as he was tossed a Volt and a Mastiff.

Eliza received the same weapons, and a glint in her eye, “Aw fuck yeah!”

Ezra laughed as he primed both weapons, the suit having morphed into a battle suit, “Yeah, whose idea was this?”

“Your future wives!” Anita said as she leaped off the side of a cliff, activating her jumpkit.

“Eliza, remind me to punish them later.”

“Kinky.”

“God fucking damn it, Eliza. The one time I need you to be serious,” Ezra yelled as Eliza followed after Anita. Ezra sighed to himself, “Eh, what’s one more?” He then followed after them, with a smile plastered on his face.

The PA system went off, probably due to Crypto, “Congratulations, Leadflare!”

Ezra smiled wider,  _ no longer am I the newly recruited. I am a fucking Legend. Now, time for me to go get my future wives. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I lied.
> 
> Hope you enjoyed this. I appreciate all of the Kudos, comments, and support. Now, a certain other project has my attention. They are certainly in a rocky section right now but don't worry, there is more to come for them.
> 
> This also ended on even word count! Little victory for me.
> 
> -SoulofHorus


End file.
